The Forty-First (1927)

Directed by Yakov Protazanov; script by Boris Lavrenyov; camera by Pyotr Yermolov.

The film is based on Boris Lavrenyov’s short story The Forty-First and is set in the Civil War. A group of Bolsheviks break out of encirclement by White Cossacks and make their way to the Karakum Desert. Among their number is Maryutka, who has killed forty White officers. The Bolsheviks reach the Aral Sea and Maryutka is ordered to take a captured officer to Red headquarters. A storm arises and they are cast ashore on a deserted island, where they fall in love. The appearance of a White ship forces Maryutka to recall her revolutionary principles and she shoots the officer, who becomes her forty-first.