Black Narcissus is a 1947 British psychological drama film written, produced, and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, and starring Deborah Kerr, Sabu, David Farrar, and Flora Robson, and featuring Esmond Knight, Jean Simmons, and Kathleen Byron. The title refers to the Caron perfume Narcisse Noir. Based on the 1939 novel by Rumer Godden, the film revolves around the growing tensions within a small convent of Anglican sisters who are trying to establish a school and hospital in the old palace of an Indian Raja at the top of an isolated mountain above a fertile valley in the Himalayas. The palace has ancient Indian erotic paintings on its walls and is run by the agent of the Indian general who owns it, a handsome middle-aged Englishman who is a source of attraction for the sisters. Black Narcissus achieved considerable acclaim for its technical mastery with the cinematographer, Jack Cardiff, winning an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and a Golden Globe Award for Best Cinematography, and Alfred Junge winning an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. According to film critic David Thomson, "Black Narcissus is that rare thing, an erotic English film about the fantasies of nuns, startling whenever Kathleen Byron is involved". Plot General Toda Rai, the Rajput ruler of a princely state in the Himalayas, invites the Congregation of The Servants of Mary to establish a school and hospital at Mopu, a dilapidated palace situated on a high cliff. Several monks previously failed to start a school there; the general's agent describes the social and environmental difficulties the sisters will face. The ambitious Sister Clodagh is appointed Sister Superior and is sent with four other nuns: Sister Philippa for gardening; Sister Briony for the infirmary; Sister Blanche, better known as "Sister Honey", to teach lace-making; and the emotionally unstable Sister Ruth for general classes. Mr Dean is unimpressed and predicts the women will last only until the beginning of the monsoon. While setting up the convent, the sisters face difficulties with the old palace and also the local Hindu population, often clashing with the native caretaker, Angu Ayah. They have difficulty accepting a holy man in their grounds (the general's uncle) who spends all his time in meditation of one of the mountains. The sisters take in Kanchi, a local girl, to try and control her erratic behavior, and they also tutor the general's heir—referred to as the