Cabrini, the Italian woman who revolutionized New York"Mother Teresa's miracle"Mother Teresa and Me", as the original title has been translated into Spanish, is a film written and directed by Indian filmmaker Kamal Musale, which opens in Spanish cinemas this Friday, April 12, distributed by European Dreams Factory.
This film, released in the UK in 2022, presents the figure of the saint in a different way, through fiction: Kavita, a young modern-day British woman of Indian origin, travels to Calcutta fleeing an unforeseen situation after suffering a car accident in England. In India, she becomes acquainted with the story of Mother Teresa of Calcutta through Deepali, her former nanny, who takes her to Nirmal Hriday, the home for the dying founded by the saint. Both stories, with flashbacks to the past that tell us glimpses of Mother Teresa's life and her "dark night", are interwoven in a fictional story, but that helps the viewer of the XXI century to become familiar with the saint of Calcutta, while putting on the table current issues such as abortion, loneliness in today's society, abandonment, love for the most vulnerable or adoption.
As indicated from the distributor, one of the novelties of the film, which received the Best Film Award at the International Catholic Film Festival "Mirabile Dictu" in 2022, is precisely its genre, since, "until now, almost all audiovisual productions dedicated to Mother Teresa have had a documentary character. Breaking this trend, 'The Miracle of Mother Teresa' is a fictional film, with a period setting".
As for the cast, the film's leading roles go to Banita Sandhu, a British actress of Punjabi origin ("October," 2018; "Eternal Beauty," 2019; "Sardar Udham Singh," 2021), as Kavita; Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz, a Swiss actress and producer with more than thirty years of acting career and one of the main promoters of the film after being deeply impacted by her first trip to India in 2010, as Mother Teresa; and Deepti Naval, an Indian-American actress of Indian origin who is very famous in India, with more than 90 films behind her (one of them, 2016's "A Way Home," was nominated for several Oscars and Globe Awards), as Deepali, Kavita's former nanny.
For his part, the director and screenwriter, Kamal Musale, already has more than thirty films and has won several awards, such as the award for Best Indie Film at the European Cinematography Awards 2017 for "Bumbai Bird", as well as Best Screenplay at the Indian Cine Film Festival 2017 for the same film, or the award for his most recent work, Curry Western, at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival in Texas, among others.
About "The Miracle of Mother Teresa," Kamal has stated that "it is about compassion. [...] Extensive research allowed me to explore the complexities of Mother Teresa's interiority and to get close to her inner torments, to the sufferings of a woman who, along with joys and sorrows, even experienced a sense of failure in what mattered most to her: her faith in God. [...] I chose to discover her through the eyes of a modern young woman living in today's Western society, who represents the vibrant search for the meaning of life of a generation like the present one. [...] One of the goals of this film is to touch the hearts of viewers and inspire people to love each other, regardless of their background or religion."
In addition, the director has pointed out some of the challenges of producing this film, such as "recreating an authentic atmosphere of 1950s Calcutta", or finding extras who looked hungry, for which "thin-looking farmers from more than 20 villages near Mumbai" were chosen. Nirmal Hriday, the House of the Dying founded by St. Teresa of Calcutta, is a replica of the original house, which is still in operation in Calcutta.
On the other hand, it is worth noting that all box office proceeds from "The Miracle of Mother Teresa" will be donated to the Zariya FoundationThe film's promoter, erected in 2010, the 100th anniversary of Mother Teresa's birth, and the proceeds will go to care for the poor and sick in India through the organizations Deepalaya, Genesis Foundation, Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences and Spread a Smile India.
For more information about the film, please see this page.
