Noomi Rapace

Courtesy of Jerod Harris/Getty Images

Noomi Rapace is set to play Mother Teresa in a new film from Teona Strugar Mitevska, director of 2019’s God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya.

Rapace will play the legendary Catholic saint in the biopic Mother, which will follow seven consecutive days at a pivotal moment in Mother Teresa’s life, the period where she decides to leave the Loreto Entally convent in Calcutta and launch her own order.

Mother will be Mitevska’s English-language debut. She called Rapace, the star of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, ‘” a perfect fit” for her depiction of Mother Teresa, which will be imagined as a rebellious, almost punk figure fighting against the structures of the Catholic church.

Born in Northern Macedonia, where Teresa is from, Mitevska said she “grew up with the myth of Mother Teresa” but “as an existentialist” wasn’t that interested in the religious figure until she did a documentary on her life for local TV and that she developed a new appreciation for her. “I absolutely related to her as a woman and I saw a lot of myself in her.”

Mother is structured as a five-country co-production between Macedonia’s Sisters and Brother Mitevski, Belgium’s Entre Chien et Loup, Denmark’s Frau Film, the Netherlands’ Baldar Film, Sweden’s Spark Film & TV and Film i Väst.  Kinology is handling global sales