This Powell-Pressburger classic won a number of well-deserved awards: Academy Awards for Best Color Photography and Best Art Direction & The New York Film Critics Award for Best Actress to Deborah Kerr. Based on Rumer Godden's novel, Black Narcissus relates a very adult story of five nuns who try to establish and maintain a hospital and school in the high Himalayas. As the nuns struggle with the rigors of the climate and the suspicions of the natives, they must also come to terms with their limitations as people. Psychologically acute, pictorially splendid, Black Narcissus remains a superb movie, worthy of the following praise from a British critic: “This exquisite film combines elements of fairy tale with the fragrance of the perfume which gives the film its title and tone. The horns which open each section, voices that ring in the heady air of the convent set in a disused harem in the Himalayas, the threat of male voices and conflict between duty and emotion blend into a brilliantly constructed film.”