Bagi remembered how the film crew was satisfied with the shooting experience in Kolkata, and the administration and local federation of cine technicians offered their assistance to the fullest. He added that the director thanked the office of the Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, and the administration, among others, who helped not only in his current work, but also promised to get back to the city in future projects.
Besides Bagi, Raging Films co-founder and SRFTI graduate, Shaunak Sur, had his name linked with the movie and its shoots in the city. The film Mother by director Mitevska will be the honour of the Orizzonti section open on the first competition day of this year’s Venice Film Festival, as stated by the festival directorate.
The film ‘Mother,’ directed by Teona Strugar Mitevska, inspired by the life of Mother Teresa, will premiere at the upcoming 82nd International Venice Film Festival. The role of Mother Teresa has been played by Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, who later became Saint Teresa in a canonisation ceremony years after her death.
According to the reports, the film festival is scheduled to be organised between August 27 and September 06.
The movie is devoted to a rather short period of her life, a couple of weeks after World War II ended, before the nun organized her own congregation, the Missionaries of Charity, and reflects the events of 1948 Kolkata.
A considerable amount of the movie was filmed in the city in 2024 over the famous Howrah bridge and places such as Kumartuli, Kalighat, Entally, Loreto Convent, where Mother used to teach, Prateek Bagi, one of the co-producers of the film, said on Friday.
Produced by a number of parties with an international partnership, the film is made in an association between Sebastien Delloye (Belgium), Sisters and Brother Mitevski (Macedonia), Vuk Mitevski and Labina Mitevska, Rainy Days in Sweden, and Frau Film in Denmark, besides Raging Film in India.
The 82nd Venice Film Festival: festival section The Orizzonti (Landscapes) is aimed at films presenting new aesthetic and expressive trends in modern cinematography, and it is going to be opened this year with the Macedonian film Mother.
The film falls in the competitive section. Teona Strugar Mitevska has already presented her movie in the official programme of the Venice Film Festival as the third movie.
It was revealed that the director was charmed by the incredible story of the life of Mother Teresa by its producers. She was born in Skopje in North Macedonia, just like the director. It was her second visit to the city after she had made a documentary, Theresa and Me, sometime before, funded by the Macedonian Radio and Television, and came to the city in 2010-11 initially.
However, when she was learning more incredible facts about the life of Mother in the course of research, she wrote a script of the full-length feature film and picked up the cast and the crew in 2024 again, according to the producers.
The lineup of the Orizzonti section, which is devoted to the presentation of innovative and new tendencies in contemporary world cinema, includes the performances not only of the great stars but also of the young directors, as the directorate of the festival stated.
