Scarlet Sails

Scarlet Sails is a Soviet fantasy romance set in a fishing village by the sea, where a young girl named Assol lives with her father Longrene, a former sailor who raises her alone. The villagers keep their distance from the pair, finding them withdrawn and unlike themselves. As a child, Assol meets a wandering storyteller who tells her that one day a ship with scarlet sails will come for her, carrying a man who will take her away to a life of love and happiness. She holds on to that promise as she grows up, while the people around her treat the prediction as a joke.

Elsewhere, Arthur Grey is a young man from a wealthy background who has grown up on tales of the sea and dreams of adventure rather than the life laid out for him. The two stories move toward each other, with Grey's longing for something more and Assol's patient faith forming the heart of the film.

Aleksandr Ptushko directed, following Sampo in 1959 and preceding The Day the Earth Froze in 1964 and The Tale of Tsar Saltan in 1967. Anastasiya Vertinskaya plays Assol and Vasili Lanovoy plays Arthur Grey, with Ivan Pereverzev, Sergei Martinson, Nikolai Volkov St. and Sergei Romodanov in supporting roles. The film was produced by Mosfilm. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from 766 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 6.3 out of 10 from 29 votes.