Swiss actress Jacqueline Fritschi-Cornaz thought that her first visit to India would mainly involve meeting Bollywood studio executives and making connections in a different segment of the entertainment industry.
Instead, that trip sparked in her a new passion — one that's reflected in the upcoming film "Mother Teresa & Me," releasing on Oct. 5.
Fritschi-Cornaz plays the role of Mother Teresa, who was canonized on Sept. 4, 2016, by Pope Francis and officially given the title "Saint Teresa of Calcutta."
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"I actually started this project 14 years ago," Fritschi-Cornaz, who is based in Zurich, told Fox News Digital in an interview about her interest in Mother Teresa.
On that first visit to India nearly a decade and a half ago, in a taxi on her way to visit film studios in Mumbai, Fritschi-Cornaz said her world was rocked when she encountered "street children" — children living in extreme poverty along the streets of Mumbai.
"I was just so shocked and touched to see this lack of perspective, to see this misery in all kinds of different aspects," she said. "So I just said to myself, 'I have to do something.'"
When her taxi pulled up her destination, she saw a painting of Mother Teresa in the entryway. That activated an idea for her.
"Spontaneously I asked this producer, ‘Have you ever thought of making a film on Mother Teresa?’"
The producer said that he was "fascinated" by the idea, but that there was simply no money in Bollywood that would be available for the film.
Fritschi-Cornaz, together with her husband Richard Fritschi and lawyer Thierry Cagianut, created the Zariya Foundation in Zurich.
Zariya means "source" in Urdu, a language spoken in South Asia.
Across a 10-year period, the Zariya Foundation raised the budget for the film through "donations and foundation money," said Fritschi-Cornaz.
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"We were able to shoot this movie during the pandemic, and we finally are able to release it all over the world," she said.
All net proceeds from the film "will support grassroots programs and foundations that work for the destitute, the sick, the disabled and abandoned children and orphans, uplifting the standards of health care and education for those who need it the most," according to the website for the Zariya Foundation.
"Mother Teresa & Me" is a fictionalized tale based in part on the true story of Mother Teresa's life. The film tells the story of Kavita, "a spoiled modern young woman of Indian origin living in London," who finds herself unexpectedly pregnant and considering an abortion.
In the film, Kavita travels back to India to see her childhood nanny, Deepali.
Mother Teresa adopted Deepali as a child.
"As Deepali narrates the stories of her past, Kavita starts to relive the beginnings of Teresa’s life in the slums of Calcutta," the film's website details.
The story of Kavita is intertwined with Mother Teresa's origins in founding the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta. It pays special attention to Mother Teresa's "dark night of the soul" period.
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"The real human story of Mother Teresa inspires Kavita positively about how to go on with her pregnancy, her life, her lovers and her family," the film's website notes.
In Catholicism, a "dark night of the soul" refers to a period of spiritual doubt, or a feeling of abandonment by God.
A decade after her death, Mother Teresa's private letters detailing her feelings of spiritual abandonment for most of her life were released to the public.
While Fritschi-Cornaz was familiar with Mother Teresa's charitable work prior to beginning work on the film, she did not know about this part of her life.
"I actually didn't know anything about her letters, which were published in 2007 by one of her confessors, which really talks about all these incredible inner conflicts and doubts and her lack of faith," said Fritschi-Cornaz. "She lost her faith."
The story of Mother Teresa's continuation of her charitable work despite her loss of faith was "very inspiring for me, and also for the scriptwriter and director," said Fritschi-Cornaz.
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"And it can be so motivating to the people all over the world to know [Mother Teresa] as the human being, the woman behind the saint, to get inspired and to really believe in its own, in his or her own dreams and visions," she added.
During her research into the Albanian-born saint, Fritschi-Cornaz said she was "incredibly touched" to learn about how lonely Mother Teresa was during this period of spiritual doubt.
"She couldn't talk to the sisters. She always had to be the role model. She only had a few confessors, you know, to share her emotions, her feelings, her really feeling abandoned," said Fritschi-Cornaz.
"It was so inspiring for me to see that she stayed with her vision, she stayed with her vocation, even in those very hard times," she said. "And that also helped me, as the person to make this project come true, and to also believe that we really [could] make [the film] over all these years."
Knowing about Mother Teresa's spiritual crisis also helped Fritschi-Cornaz better prepare for the role. She explained that playing a well-known figure is "one of the greatest challenges for an actor or actress."
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"To really go into all these dark moments of her life really helped me to prepare a character and to be authentic finally in front of the camera," she said.
Fritschi-Cornaz also studied film of Mother Teresa speaking. In addition, she met with her relatives in Skjope, volunteered in Calcutta at one of the homes Mother Teresa founded, and learned how to speak English with an Albanian accent.
"I visited her family, and that was very, very touching to really listen to what she was like as a child, what she felt to leave at 18 years old and never see her mother again," she said.
Fritschi-Cornaz was given a silver cross, which she wore on her sari during shooting, from Mother Teresa's family — something that was also very meaningful to her.
Mother Teresa "really tried to be there for the poorest of the poor," said Fritschi-Cornaz. "I think that's just such an incredible vision and such incredible dedication."
"Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defense of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded," said Pope Francis during her canonization Mass.
Born Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu in what is now known as Skjope, North Macedonia, Mother Teresa was of Albanian heritage, according to the website for the Nobel Peace Prize. First feeling the call to religious life during her adolescence, she left home in September 1928 at age 18 and moved to Ireland, joining the Sisters of Loreto.
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With the Sisters of Loreto, the teenage Agnes was given the religious name "Sister Mary Teresa," in honor of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Vatican's website says. A little over a year after her arrival in Ireland, she was sent to one of the Sisters of Loreto's missions in India — which would become her adopted homeland.
"Mother Teresa & Me" will be released in theaters on October 5. Additional details can be found on the film's website, https://ift.tt/ncjVGfr.
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