The first of five Rossellini films to star Ingrid Bergman, Stromboli was created, according to its director, to illustrate that “one of the toughest lessons from [World War II] is the danger of aggressive egotism.” The film paints a desolate portrait of a spoiled wartime Baltic refugee named Karin (Bergman) who marries a poor fisherman as a means of escape, only to discover that he makes his home on the slope of an active volcano. Smoke and steam transform the film and—ultimately—Karin as she travels across the unstable island alone. Rossellini’s lush ending, with its subtly choreographed movements and sunlit compositions, reveals Karin’s final epiphany about herself and her future.