Teona Strugar Mitevska is bringing the “real” Mother Teresa to the screen. Her next film will be “a story depicting five days in the life of a 44-year-old ambitious woman, just at the moment when she is to leave St. Mary’s convent and create her own religious order,” Mitevska told Screen Daily. “Mother” is “not a biopic” of Mother Teresa but rather “a film about the real person, the woman behind the myth,” the director said.
Mitevska’s sister, Labina Mitevska, will produce via their Sisters and Brother Mitevski Production banner. “Mother” is based on the sisters’ 2013 TV series “Teresa and I.”
The project is currently seeking partners at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.
Born Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in 1910, Saint Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, which provides medical and social services to those in need, although her clinics received criticism for their poor conditions. She received the Nobel Peace Prize and Ramon Magsaysay Peace Prize. Saint Teresa died in 1997 and was canonized in 2016.
Teona Strugar Mitevska’s most recent film, “God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya,” won the Ecumenical Jury and Guild Film awards at the 2019 Berlinale. She has also directed features “How I Killed a Saint,” “I Am from Titov Veles,” “The Woman Who Brushed Off Her Tears,” and “When the Day Had No Name.” Labina Mitevska has produced and acted in all of these titles.
The sisters are now in post-production on the anti-war film “The Happiest Man In The World.” Teona Strugar Mitevska directed the pic and wrote it alongside Elma Tataragic.