UK | Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger | Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron, David Farrar

5 November + Introduction from writer, bookseller, organiser and film curator, So Mayer.

A group of Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh, are sent to a mountain in the Himalayas. The climate in the region is hostile and the nuns are housed in an odd old palace. They work to establish a school and a hospital and help establish their Christian mission, but slowly isolation and culture clashes shifts their focus. Sister Ruth falls for a government worker, Mr. Dean and Sister Clodagh is pulled back into memories of her time before her calling. This highly stylised melodrama where solid ideas of Empire begin to disintegrate is restored to glorious technicolour in this new restoration.

Screening as part of Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell + Pressburger, a UK-wide film season supported by National Lottery and BFI Film Audience Network. bfi.org.uk/powell-and-pressburger.

Powell and Pressburger: Sex and Spirituality Join us for a talk from writer and curator So Mayer on Powell and Pressburger’s extraordinary masterpiece Black Narcissus and the Queer sexuality that was pervasive throughout their work.

A group of nuns struggle with their sanity in an isolated Himalayan community.