MOTHER TERESA & ME

India/Switzerland, 2022, 125 minutes, Colour.

Banita Sanduh, Jacqueline Fritzie-Cornaz, Shobu Kapopor, Deepti Naval, Bryan Lawrence.

Directed by Kamal Musale.

Mother Teresa of Kolkota, now a canonised saint, was a significant figure in India in the 20^th century and, indeed, throughout the world. There have been many documentaries about her, three feature films where she has been played by Geraldine Chaplin, Olivia Hussey and Juliet Stevenson. Now another film? But one with some significant differences.

It can be noted immediately that the film was fully funded by donation and by grants from foundations, especially the Zariya foundation, established by the actress Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz and her husband. She was impressed on a visit to Kolkota many years earlier and they set up the foundation to help the Missionaries of Charity, and with the proceeds from the exhibition of this film. She asked the Indian director, Kamale Musale, Switzerland-based, to both write and direct the film about Mother Teresa.

In fact, there are two films in one, so to speak, here. And they are intercut with strong dramatic effect, and the two stories finally coming together.

The first story, of course, is that of Mother Teresa herself, seeing her as a Loretto sister, migrant from Albania, teaching, but impacted by the poor, especially in the streets of Kolkota in the immediate aftermath of World War II. She asks permission to work outside the convent school, permission eventually granted by the Archbishop of Kolkota, her work with one of the local priests to achieve the fulfilment of her request.

One interesting feature to note about this film is that it shows Mother Teresa’s work in Kolkota, nothing of her fame, connections with Pope John Paul II, world leaders, the Nobel Prize. The focus is solely on her meeting the poor, the response, the questions, some hostility, being joined by a school pupil, more sisters joining, some government assistance, the building up of the centre – and the realisation that whatever people think of Mother Teresa, for and against, she was actually there, with the poor, in the streets, for almost 50 years.

  Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz plays Mother Teresa, not in a film star way at all, sometimes severe, certainly always determined, memories of her anguish of soul and struggles with faith, and the reality of the Kolkota streets with these sequences filmed in black and white, gradually some colour tinting until 1991 when her story is in full colour.

And, initially, audiences wondering about the second story. It is set in London, the 2020s, a young woman, Kavita, Indian background, a violinist. Very much a London woman of the 2020s, definite, outspoken, critical, reacting against her parents wanting to arrange a marriage for her, discovering that she is pregnant, her partner fearful and not helping, a lot of discussion about abortion and keeping children. So, contemporary audiences can resonate with the character and the issues. And all this is filmed in bright colour by contrast to the Kolkota black-and-white.

Kavita goes to India to stay with her aunt, discovering the work of the missionaries of Charity, talking with a young volunteer at an aspiring doctor, gradually becoming involved, sceptical, interested, discussions with her aunt, and some discoveries, learning more about Mother Teresa until the end where there is the revelation of a connection.

So, this is not just another film about Mother Teresa, worthy though that enterprise could be. It is an invitation to a 21^st-century audience to look back on her work, the commitment of the Missionaries of Charity, a discussion of issues of poverty, interfaith dialogue, pregnancy, birth, abortion…

And, by the end, we have a good focus on Mother Teresa and her main work, and with the performance by Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz, images of her face, sometimes anguished, sometimes happy.

1. Audience knowledge of Mother Teresa? Her reputation in the 20^th century? In India? Nobel Prize? Worldwide? (In various documentaries, feature films about her?)
2. This film for a 21^st-century audience, a quarter of a century after her death? Her becoming part of memories? The decision to show her work in India, on the streets, none of the international connections or reputation? And Missionaries of Charity focus? The decision to make a 21^st-century story, contemporary characters, issues, the work of the sisters in the 2020s, the meeting of the past with the present?
3. The opening, Mother Teresa and her struggles with the sense of the presence of God? The background, Albania, the Loreto sisters, the convent, community life, teaching the wealthy girls, the classroom scenes? Her discoveries on the street, 1946, a sense of the presence of God, the voice of God asking her to move out, the discussions with the priest throughout the film, his reactions, his intervening with the Archbishop, the long time, the eventual permission for her to move? Her response?
4. The decision to film these sequences in black-and-white, the gradual tinting of colour, full colour by 1991? And comparisons with the 21^st-century colour?
5. Moving out of the convent, choosing the sari, her habit, walking the streets, encountering the poor, good responses, suspicions, getting the children, teaching them, people donating goods for her teaching? The care for the ill, the dying? The impact on audiences of this work among the poor and the dying?
6. The doctor, the cases, his showing the building, the hostility from the religious group, the leader? Her defying him? His coming inside, the religious issues, interfaith and God? (And the later scene in where he is dying and being cared for by sisters?)
7. The development over the decades the young girl joining her from school, more nuns joining, the Missionaries of Charity?
8. Mother Teresa and her spirituality, of service to the poor, but her own struggles, feeling the absence of God and God’s voice?
9. The introduction of the modern story, its narrative, inserted into the stages of the work of Mother Teresa?

• Kavita, her age, music, the violin, her co-musician, the relationship? Discovering she was pregnant? Her response, the issue of abortion, her sense of independence? No help from her partner, his withdrawing? The sequence of her parents, the visit for the arranged marriage, the awkwardness, her walking out? The confrontation with her parents?
• Her going to India, the meeting with her aunt, the issues of the pregnancy, the issue of abortion, the arguments for and against? The pro-life issues?
• The aunt, religious background, not Christian, the flashbacks and seeing her as a little girl, invited to study with Mother Teresa, growing up, working with her, admiration for her?
• Kavita, in Kolkota, wandering, the poverty, the attitudes, the London background, reading the book, learning about Mother Teresa, in the hospital, the young volunteer, friendly, the discussions, his commitment, helping with the work? The growing effect on her?
• Mother Teresa, 1991, her age, the wear and tear of work, the birth of the baby, the aunt, the adoption?
• Kavita and her mother, the visit to India, the clashes, the two older women, the revelation of the truth, her adoption? The scenes with her mother and father, explaining the background and the adoption and love?
• The two stories coming together, the influence of Mother Teresa – and Kavita returning to London, committed to a music, the recital, meeting her musician friend again?
• The open end, the pregnancy, having the child, not…?