The Gadfly (Russian: Овод, romanized: Ovod) is a 1955 Soviet historical action film based on the novel by Ethel Lilian Voynich and directed by Aleksandr Faintsimmer.

[1] The motion picture tells a story of the underground struggle of Italian patriots against the Austrian invaders for independence of their homeland.

Young student Arthur Burton says goodbye to his beloved teacher, the priest Montanelli, who is departing to Rome on the orders of the Pope.

He is resentful of its leader, Giovanni Bolla; he experiences jealousy towards him regarding his girlfriend Gemma and confesses this to the priest, father Cardi.

Before the execution Arthur admits to Montanelli that he is his son and offers his shocked father a choice between fighting for freedom or faith in Christ.

The complete original score was reconstructed by conductor Mark Fitz-Gerald and published in 2016 as Volume 138 of the DSCH New Collected Works edition.