Novitiate

Novitiate is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Maggie Betts in her feature directorial debut. Starring Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Morgan Saylor, Dianna Agron, Julianne Nicholson, Liana Liberato, Denis O'Hare, and Maddie Hasson, the film follows a young woman (Qualley) who starts to question her faith as she trains to become a nun. Plot Cathleen grows up in an unstable family in 1950s rural Tennessee; after attending a Catholic girls' school and watching her mother, Nora's, life falling apart she becomes attracted to the Catholic faith and decides to join a convent when she is seventeen. At the Sisters of the Beloved Rose convent she is under the control of the Mother Superior, who is cold and traditional. She imposes strict punishments on the young postulants spending their first months at the convent; comparatively, the nun overseeing the postulants' direct education, Sister Mary Grace, is warm and progressive, allowing them frivolity. However, Cathleen chooses to spend free time studying the Bible rather than spend time with the other girls. When the Catholic Church is transitioning to Vatican II in this period, Mother Superior ignores the letters from the Archbishop requesting the implementation of the more liberal practices; Sister Mary Grace finds the notice and challenges the Mother Superior, but is ignored and leaves the convent. Cathleen completes her tenure as a postulant and becomes a novice, taking her Simple Vows. Soon, though, she starts to feel sexual desire, and becomes more reclusive and stops eating as self-punishment. Nora visits to tell Cathleen of her father's death and notices that she looks ill; Nora threatens the Mother Superior, who tells her that Cathleen is devoted to God and no longer her daughter. Cathleen soon collapses from her malnutrition and ends up in the infirmary, finding a confidante in Sister Emanuel there; the two young nuns grow closer until they have a physical encounter. Cathleen's health improves.