The Nun's Story Trivia Quiz

Answer: Audrey Hepburn

The film has an all-star cast, including Peter Finch and Dame Edith Evans.

Answer: Gabrielle

Her name is Gabrielle van der Mal, and she is the daughter of a famous thoracic surgeon.

Answer: Sister Luke

In the scene where the novices are given their names, hers stands out for being masculine, monosyllabic, and without the usual Marie/Mary. The novel on which the movie is based points out that it is also the name of the patron saint of the medical profession, St. Luke.

Answer: Belgium

It is clear from various geographic references (e.g., Antwerp, the Congo) and from Sister Luke's French/Flemish birth name that we are in Belgium. Ironically, Audrey Hepburn was Belgian herself (although she does not get to speak a word of French or Flemish in the movie).

Answer: obedience

Her most flagrant act of disobedience - giving a dangerous inmate a cup of water without calling for help - almost costs her her life.

Answer: Pierre

We see him as a boy when Gabrielle leaves home. After years of no contact, which was normal for those who entered a convent in those days, she learns that he is all grown up and in the army.

Answer: She is told that she will be nursing white colonials, not natives.

There are many things in the movie that are nearly incomprehensible to anyone who has not had some kind of contact with the Roman Catholic tradition of service in a community under vows. I've already mentioned lack of contact with family. One might also be surprised at the depth of Sister Luke's disappointment over not receiving the most difficult assignment.

Answer: She contracts tuberculosis.

Tuberculosis usually meant the end to a careeer in the tropics because it was incurable in that climate. Sister Luke, again violating obedience, puts herself in the hands of the wizard/surgeon she has been assisting, who does cure her over a period of months. Later in the movie, after she has returns to Belgium, her father is killed by Germans.

Answer: She is the only one qualified to accompany an important patient on a sea voyage home.

War is indeed coming, which will keep her in Belgium after she gets there. The novel by Kathryn Hulme makes it clear that the patient is an important colonial, who needs to have his hand held through a temporary mental breakdown.

Answer: She cannot remain detached from the struggle against the Nazi occupation.

Sister Luke is drawn into the underground, after which she casts aside all concerns about obedience, and acting without the approval of her superiors. Rather than live a lie, she submits to the wrenching negative ritual of dispensation from her vows and expulsion from the convent.

The novel makes it clear that the real character on whom Sister Luke is based continued her work as a nurse with the resistance.