By C.M. Paul*
Kolkata, December 12, 2025 — For decades, Mother Teresa of Calcutta has been canonized in public memory as the “Saint of the Gutters”—a figure of pure compassion beyond reproach. Teona Strugar Mitevska’s new film Mother, which premiered at the Venice International Film Festival opening the Orizzonti section, shatters that image with unsettling force.
Instead of a haloed saint, Mitevska presents Teresa as a relentless, ambitious woman locked in a bruising battle with Catholic Church bureaucracy during a critical week in 1948 when she awaited Vatican approval to establish the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.
Teona Strugar Mitevska’s film Mother premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on August 27, opening the prestigious Orizzonti (Horizons) section. The festival itself ran from August 27 to September 6, and Mother was positioned as one of its headline screenings. This marked the world premiere of the film, with Noomi Rapace portraying Mother Teresa.
The choice to open the Orizzonti section underscored the film’s bold, unconventional approach—what critics have called an “anti-biopic”—and highlighted Mitevska’s connection to Mother Teresa’s birthplace in Skopje, North Macedonia.
This is not the Teresa of prayer cards and hagiographies. Noomi Rapace’s portrayal strips away sanctity to reveal a figure driven by iron will, strategic calculation, and an almost corporate determination to establish her mission. Mitevska’s “anti-biopic” dares to suggest that Teresa’s rise was not simply divine providence but also the result of sheer human ambition and ‘political’ maneuvering. In doing so, the film unsettles believers and admirers alike, forcing audiences to confront the uncomfortable possibility that sainthood is forged as much in struggle and stubbornness as in sanctity.
The critical week in 1948 becomes the dramatic fulcrum of the film. Teresa had already left the Loreto convent but had not yet received formal permission to begin her new congregation. The film captures her inner turmoil and outward defiance—balancing obedience to ecclesiastical authority with an unshakable conviction that her mission lay among the poorest of the poor. Mitevska refuses to portray this waiting period as passive; instead, it is depicted as a crucible of ambition, where Teresa wrestles with doubt, church bureaucracy, and cultural dislocation to secure the future of her calling.
The reception of the film has been sharply divided. Admirers of Mitevska’s boldness hail the film as a necessary corrective to decades of hagiographic portrayals, while detractors accuse it of reducing Teresa to a caricature of ambition. The punk-rock aesthetic, frenetic pacing, and spiky dialogue amplify the sense of confrontation, but at times risk overwhelming the subtler dimensions of her spirituality. Yet, even in its excess, Mother succeeds in sparking debate—reminding audiences that Teresa was not merely a saintly figure but also a strategist, organizer, and visionary who reshaped the landscape of service to the poor.
(C. M. Paul is a former member of the Central Board of Film Certification, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.)