Plot summary
The movie is set in 1936 in Barcelona in the midst of the Spanish Revolution and Spanish Civil War. [3] The film opens with scenes of working class militants demolishing and burning religious icons, as they shout "down with Capitalism!" and "long live the libertarian revolution!" Maria, a nun, attempts to flee the revolutionary violence by hiding in an apartment, not realizing it is a brothel. Pilar, Concha, and Aura, militia women of the "Free Women" (Mujeres Libres), raid the establishment and convince the prostitutes and Maria under their cause.
As Concha helps Charo and the other now-former prostitutes form a committee, Maria accompanies Pilar as she smuggles submachine guns to an anarchist bookstore in Barcelona. After its proprietor, Floren, gives her some anarchist books, Maria becomes an avid anarchist, able to recite the works of Peter Kropotkin at will. One woman (who resembles Federica Montseny) tries to persuade the Free Women to stay and work in defense factories, while men try to convince them to go work as cooks, not front-line soldiers.
The Free Women join other anarchist militias (including the Durruti Column) in the fight to retake Zaragoza from the Nationalists. One night, a militiawoman claims to be the voice of Mateo Morral and speaks of a strongbox, dynamite, and a detonator. Maria uses this information to locate a chest full of dynamite. Along the way, she meets an ex-priest and asks him to give her the Sacrament of Penance. He rejects her request and silences her when she begins praying by kissing her. The militia storms a Nationalist parapet, using the dynamite as a part of trap. The anarchist militias successfully captures San Roman, at one point using an armored car to break through a barricade.
During a funeral for one of the militia leaders killed during the assault, the ex-priest attempts to persuade Maria to marry him, but she rejects his proposal. After a gynecology exam shows that many of the militiawomen are pregnant or sick with gonorrhea, the ex-priest is ordered to persuade the militiawomen to leave the front. Several of them, Maria included, reject the proposal.
Suddenly, Nationalist troops, accompanied by Regulares , attack the town. One of the Regulares slits Charo's wrists, while another stabs Floren in the stomach after a bloody struggle. They then rape Maria at knifepoint, until one of their officers intervenes. The Nationalists capture the town, placing it under strict curfew and martial law, and take Maria and other milita members prisoner. While in prison, Maria encounters Pilar, whose throat has been slit. Maria comforts her as she dies, prophesying of an anarchist paradise, blessed by God, free of exploitation and misery.
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