The Nun's Story (1959)

The Nun's Story is a 1959 Warner Bros film directed by Fred Zinnemann and starring Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, Edith Evans and Peggy Ashcroft. Based upon the 1956 novel of the same title by Kathryn Hulme, the story tells of the life of Sister Luke (Hepburn), a young Belgian woman who decides to enter a convent and make the many sacrifices required by her choice. However, at the outset of World War II, she finds that she cannot remain neutral in the face of the abject evil of Hitler's Germany.

The book was based upon the life of Marie Louise Habets, a Belgian nurse who similarly spent time as a nun. The film follows the book fairly closely, although some critics believe the film shows sexual tension in the relationship between Dr. Fortunati (Peter Finch) and Sister Luke that is absent from the novel.

A major portion of the film takes place in the Belgian Congo, site of location shooting, where Sister Luke assists Dr. Fortunati in surgical procedures at a mission hospital.
The location was Yakusu, a center of missionary and medical activity in the Belgian Congo.

Colleen Dewhurst made her feature film debut in the film.

Synopsis

Gabrielle "Gaby" Van Der Mal (Audrey Hepburn), whose father Hubert (Dean Jagger) is a famous surgeon in Belgium, enters a convent of nursing sisters in the late 1920s in the hopes of eventually becoming a missionary nursing sister in the Belgian Congo. After being given the name of Sister Luke and undergoing a postulancy and novitiate which foreshadow her future difficulties with the vow of obedience, she takes her first vows and is sent to a school of tropical medicine.

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