An American feature film on Mother Teresa catches the founder of the Missionaries of Charity between faith and doubt.
The Letters, which opens in the United States of America on December 4, examines the inner turmoil and early struggles of the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Directed by William Riead, who has mostly worked in American television, The Letters traces Teresa’s life over a period of 50 years in Kolkata, and includes references to her correspondence with her friend and spiritual adviser, Father Celeste Van Exem. These letters were published in 2007 in the collection Mother Teresa: Come Be My Light. British actress Juliet Stevenson plays the lead role. Stevenson put herself through a gruelling regime of preparing for the part by watching historic recordings of Mother Teresa to perfect her accent and mannerisms. The film also stars Max Van Sydow and Rutger Hauer, and the Indian actors include Mahabanoo Mody Kotwal, Tilottama Shome and Vijay Maurya.
Riead has said that the film was 14 years in the making, and was triggered off by the terrorist attacks on the USA on September 9, 2011. “I wanted to make a film that was the polar opposite of that evil – a film that would matter,” the filmmaker said. He is also an admirer of Richard Attenborough’s Oscar-winning biopic Gandhi, and set out to make a film about another modern-day saint who moves and inspires lakhs of followers.
Mother Teresa’s image as a messiah of the developing world was partly created by the first documentary on her. Made in 1969 by Peter Chafer for the British Broadcasting Service and anchored by journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, Something Beautiful for God focuses on her work with Missionaries of Charity, the organisation she founded in 1950. The film gave an enormous boost to her popularity and work.
Several productions followed, including the television movies Mother Teresa: In the Name of the Poor, made in 1997 with Geraldine Chaplin in the lead role, and Mother Teresa, originally produced as the Italian television miniseries Madre Teresa and featuring Olivia Hussey.
Several other documentaries and films have been made on the Albanian-origin missionary. With sweeping praise came trenchant criticism. Among her most vocal detractors was journalist and essayist Christopher Hitchens, who conducted an investigation into her links with controversial politicians and her orthodox Christian views in the 25-minute documentary Hell’s Angel in 1994.
Mother Teresa has even been the subject of animated films, such as this educational one aimed at young viewers.