It grew out of the already passé genre of German "hygiene" films that profited from "informing" the public on sexual matters; but Misery and Fortune of Women, by two of the most celebrated Soviet film artists, hired by producer Lazar Wechsler, is an out-and-out treatise on the need for legal abortions at a time when two million European women each year sought clandestine abortions. The first, narrative half of the film-beautifully shot in classic Soviet montage style-tells of a woman who seeks an abortion of her fifth pregnancy and two others who are left pregnant and single. Stirrups in the doctor's office become a symbol for the self-righteous medical establishment that sends the women to brutal abortionists. The film's second half is a documentary on proper medical treatment of women, though a constructivist joy in the modern makes even these supposedly benign health workers and their marvelous machines seem formidable. This unflinching film was followed by a trail of controversy.