Black Narcissus is a 1947 British psychological drama film jointly written, directed and produced by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on the 1939 novel by Rumer Godden.

It stars Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, and Flora Robson, and features Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons, and Kathleen Byron.

Set during the final years of British colonial rule in India, the film depicts the growing tensions within a small convent of Anglican sisters who are trying to establish a school and hospital in the old harem of an Indian Raja at the top of an isolated mountain in the Himalayas.

They come to rely on the help and advice of the Raja's British agent, a cynical Englishman whose attractiveness and panache become a source of temptation for the sisters.

[6] General Toda Rai, the Rajput ruler of a princely state in the Himalayas, invites an order of Anglican nuns to establish a school and hospital at Mopu, a former harem situated on a high cliff.

The general's wealthy uncle has become a Hindu holy man and spends all his time meditating on a mountain within the monastery grounds, refusing to speak to anyone.

The sisters agree to mentor Kanchi, a local girl with a reputation for erratic behaviour, but Ayah whips her for stealing.

Honey's attachment to the local children ends disastrously after she gives ineffective medication to a fatally ill baby.

In addition, although the sisters planned to educate only girls, they feel compelled to make an exception for the general's boy heir, who needs tutoring in Western culture.

Ruth grows obsessed with the carnally handsome Mr Dean and orders an alluring, modern dress to charm him one day.

Ruth, who has already changed out of her nun's habit into her new dress, defiantly puts on lipstick in front of Clodagh to signal her personal liberation.

According to Robert Horton, Powell set the climactic sequence, a murder attempt on the cliffs of the cloister, to a pre-existing musical track, staging it as though it were a piece of visual choreography.

"[21] The film was intended to end with an additional scene in which Sister Clodagh sobs and blames herself for the convent's failure to Mother Dorothea.

[28] In the United States, the Catholic National Legion of Decency condemned the film as "an affront to religion and religious life" for characterising it as "an escape for the abnormal, the neurotic and the frustrated".

[32] Philip Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times gave the film high praise, deeming it an "exquisite cinematic jewel", continuing: "I can't say how authentic Black Narcissus is, but the lotus land to which it carries us is uniquely unforgettable.

[34] Thomas M. Pryor of The New York Times lauded the creative collaboration of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the writer-director duo, for their notable artistic achievement in Black Narcissus.

Pryor particularly highlighted the groundbreaking use of Technicolor in the movie, noting its exceptional realism and its ability to create a riveting dramatic impact.

Pryor found the presentation of the film's dramatic elements to be exceptionally well-executed and praised the overall performance of the cast as commendable.

Nevertheless, Pryor observed a subtle undercurrent of detachment and cynicism in the portrayal of the nuns within the narrative, acknowledging that this aspect might prove disconcerting to certain viewers.

[38] Reviewing the film in 2005, Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave it five out of five stars, praising its direction, performances, and production design, and calling it "an all-time top 10 favourite of mine".

[40] The Criterion Collection, an American home media distribution company, released Black Narcissus on laserdisc in the early 1990s, and issued it on DVD in 2002.

Film critic Dave Kehr has suggested that the final images of the film, as the sisters abandon the Himalayas and proceed down the mountain, could have been interpreted by British viewers in 1947 as "a last farewell to their fading empire"; he suggests that for the film-makers, it is not an image of defeat "but of a respectful, rational retreat from something that England never owned nor understood".

Black Narcissus achieved acclaim for its pioneering technical mastery and shocked audiences at the time of release with its vibrant colour and the themes of the film.

Audiences gasped at some of the scenes, notably the shot of the pink flowers which, shown on the big screen, was a spectacle at the time.

The film's resonance with populations exploring previously stifled sexual desires and expression extends beyond its contemporary milieu of women in the post-war era.