Sergei M. Eisenstein directs this historical, silent Russian drama centred on the naval mutiny and street riots at the seaport of Odessa that sparked the 1905 Russian Revolution. When the crew of the Battleship Potemkin protests after being given rotten meat as rations, the captain responds by ordering the execution of the dissidents. Outrage at this injustice quickly ignites and the townspeople soon surround the harbour in a mass demonstration - but the scene gives way to tragedy and brutality as the authorities move in to quell the uprising.