In this movie, the female lead is called Marina Pinares, and she's first introducted as a cold, elegant blonde with perfectly upswept hair, at the height of her power, but also dying from an initially unspecified ailment.

The film goes from there in a series of flashbacks between past and present, and can be a bit difficult to follow, but the actress who plays Marina does a very effective job. She deftly portrays both a miniskirt-wearing party girl seeking to sleep her way to the top and out of a dreary existence; and a ruthless, determined First Lady, clad in glamorous furs, seeking to cement her immortality as "Little Mother," the icon of her country.

As First Lady, Marina smoothly manipulates the media and mass crowds, has her posters plastered everywhere, and lets the public openly witness little acts of charity, and it's clear she actually runs the country and the President, a colonel she opportunistically married, is but a figurehead. However, while her husband is about to run for re-election, she creates tension in the military hierarchy backing the Pinares regime with her ambition to formally run as Vice-President, as the conservative junta does not approve of this. Moreover, men from her past threaten the saintly image she has carefully crafted.

The film was shot in Croatia in the early 1970s, then part of Yugoslavia, and the actual backgrounds lend perfectly to the atmosphere. We see an elegant European style capital with grand boulevards and ancient buildings, as well as dreary modernistic apartments and squalid slums.

As for sex, there is a very interesting scene where Marina is showering and her lover approaches the glass door of the shower stall. She presses herself against the glass and he makes love to the outline of her naked body. Watch it more than once, it's far more erotic than a lot of "love" scenes in other movies.

Overall, it's quite a fascinating political drama inspired by a controversial historical figure.