A highly praised film about Mother Theresa will soon hit select theaters nationwide, depicting a time in the revered Catholic saint’s life when she struggled with severe doubts about her faith. “Mother Teresa & Me,” which won the “Best Film Award” at the Mirabile Dictu International Film Festival in Rome, will be released in theaters across the United States on October 5 through Fathom Events.
The movie follows a young pregnant woman named Kavita who travels to Calcutta, now Kolkata, India, after being abandoned by her boyfriend and finds solace in learning about Mother Teresa’s life. Kavita, who’s undecided about whether she wants to seek an abortion or carry her baby to term, learns of Mother Teresa’s pro-life stance and is inspired by her example of compassionate love and perseverance while carrying the burdens of others.
Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz, who plays Mother Teresa, told The Christian Post that she was honored to play the role and was unaware of Mother Teresa’s doubts about her faith until she researched for the part. Canonized by the Catholic Church in 2016, Mother Teresa reportedly told her confessor about her faith crisis, as recorded in letters released to the public in 2007, 10 years after she died.
Fritschi-Cornaz added, “These letters really helped me to go down to all these dark moments and points as an actress to try to feel what she went through. Especially in this loneliness because she couldn’t talk to the sisters. She only had these moments with the confessors, who couldn’t really help her. So I think that was very inspiring. The scriptwriter, director, producer and myself, we all said, ‘That’s really what we want to focus on in the stories in the film because that’s inspiring for audiences that can really motivate them to stay with their own dreams and to keep on going.'”
Fritschi-Cornaz also studied film of Mother Teresa speaking. In addition, she met with her relatives in Skjope, volunteered in Calcutta at one of the homes Mother Teresa founded, and learned how to speak English with an Albanian accent. She said, “I visited her family, and that was very, very touching to really listen to what she was like as a child, what she felt to leave at 18 years old and never see her mother again,”
The Swiss actress said Mother Teresa’s life story inspired her. She told The Christian Post, “Through the making of this film and all the challenges, I learned that we are able to do so much more than we believe. We have so much more strength, and it’s worth believing in our dreams.” Fritschi-Cornaz believes that everyone, regardless of their beliefs, has many opportunities to change people’s circumstances for the better.
She said, “Mother Teresa finally had 5,000 sisters around the world without business courses, without internet, without the back office, just because she could inspire so many women, and I’m sure that God loves us all because we do so much in our societies.” Along with Fritschi-Cornaz, “Mother Teresa & Me” stars Banita Sandhu and Deepti Naval.
The film was birthed 10 years ago following Fritschi-Cornaz’s trip to India, witnessing the caste system and interacting with those in a perpetual state of poverty. Proceeds from the film will be donated to charitable organizations that work with abandoned children and disabled people. Tickets are now available at participating theater box offices.