Roberto Rossellini's films with Ingrid Bergman were years ahead of their time; incorporating neorealism into the professionally-acted drama, Rossellini achieved a startlingly direct and intuitive treatment of themes often skirted by the traditional plot-oriented melodrama. Stromboli, the first of these films, was shot on the volcanic island of Stromboli, with the townspeople playing a part in the drama. Bergman portrays a Lithuanian refugee, Karin, who, in order to escape the horrors of postwar internment camps, agrees to marry an Italian fisherman and live with him on his island. Tied to the traditions of married life and faced with a townspeople whose profoundly simple way of life is incomprehensible to her, she finds that her new “security” is worse than her former existence as a displaced person. Rossellini sets his tale against stunning natural imagery, including the documentary-like tuna-catch sequence and the dramatic finale, during which Karin, trying to flee the rocky island, is caught not by her husband but by a tumultuous volcanic eruption. The U.S. release version, which tells us that Karin returns to her husband, was denounced by Rossellini. Ours is the original version, which leaves this point ambiguous.