Fred Zinnemann directs Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, and Edith Evans in this procedural following the indoctrination and the doubts of a medically gifted nun through the interwar years.

A lovely way to spend an Easter Bank Holiday, though epic in length and lacking even a hint of adult content, this proved a satisfying exploration into the external rituals, politics and interior struggles of a young nun. Like Whiplash or Breaking Away we are absorbed into a sub-culture we may not massively relate to but then see the effort and obstacles our heroine must face, and therefore find ourselves absorbed into this alien world. Hepburn puts in a strong turn, her beautiful face standing out among the anonymous rituals, her charisma conveying her resilience to a personality devouring regime. Zinneman’s tale isn’t a scathing attack on a devoted life, more an attempt to reproduce the resolve needed in nuns to be at peace with themselves, the world and their sacrifices. It is presented here as something that even the most determined and faithful would struggle with. The on location middle act in a Congo mission is unique, and Peter Finch gives a dynamic performance as the atheist surgeon who grows to respect his religious head nurse.

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