Teona Strugar Mitevska’s Mother, which I saw just after La Grazia, is an impressionistic, occasionally hallucinatory origin story about a 38-year-old Mother Teresa (Noomi Rapace) tending to Calcutta’s dirt-poor. She did so, the film says, not just with standard-issue compassion but also a strict and demanding edge.
Pic delivers intimations of a platonic lesbian vibe between Teresa and a hot Sister Agnieszka (Sylvia Hoeks). It also goes with a metal-rock score. Rapace has described the tone of the film as “punk rock”
I honestly don’t feel like reviewing it now, partly because it’s an “almost”. Plus I’ve been up since 3 am and need a break before catching a 7 pm screening of Laszlo Nemes‘ Orphan. I need to walk outside and smell the Adriatic.
But Mother is a respectable, better-than-decent portrayal of an iconic figure. It certainly doesn’t portray her in rapt devotional terms. This is basically young Mother Teresa as an unsettled personality and a tough taskmaster.
I somehow never picked up on the fact that Calcutta is now spelled Kolkata.
Variety copy: Pic follows Teresa, Mother Superior of the convent of the Sisters of Loreto, as she anxiously awaits permission to leave her monastery and create a new religious order. The drama, shot in English, focuses on seven pivotal days in the life of the future saint when she faced a dilemma that challenged both her ambitions and faith.
“Mitevska, who previously explored Mother Teresa’s life in her unreleased documentary Teresa and I, draws from extensive research including interviews with the last living sisters who witnessed the saint’s character.
“The director positions her protagonist not as a traditional saint, but as ‘almost a CEO of a multinational company, relentless and ambitious.'”
“The filmmaker acknowledges the controversial aspects of her subject, particularly Teresa’s stance on abortion, while choosing to examine the woman before she became a globally recognized saint.
“The screenplay, penned by Goce Smilevski, Mitevska, and Elma Tataragić, presents what the director calls ‘a female story’ that avoids traditional martyrdom narratives.”