About

High in the Himalayas, Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) is tasked with a mission to establish a school and a dispensary out of a local warlord’s abandoned palace. The idealistic sisterhood, including the unstable Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron), is immediately confronted by a foreign culture and climate, with exotic music, unrelenting gales, and unpredictable local politics contribute to a mystical presence that threatens to inflame unfamiliar passions – a situation already aggravated by the warlord’s local agent and emissary, Mr Dean (David Farrar). Adapted from the novel by Rumer Godden, and shot in Technicolor almost entirely on a highly-stylised set at Pinewood Studios, the Archers manufacture a unique aesthetic that highlights a world of repressed desires and heightened senses, in a liminal space between fantasy and reality. The film was awarded Best Cinematography (Colour) and Best Art Direction - Set Decoration (Colour) at the Academy Awards.

Black Narcissus will screen from an imported, restored 35mm print.

PG | Adult concepts