Bassam Tariq Reclaims the Mahershala Ali Collaboration With ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’

Bassam Tariq’s “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” reaches select U.S. theaters on September 25, bringing Mahershala Ali back into the filmmaker’s orbit after their planned “Blade” collaboration failed to reach production. Amazon MGM Studios will expand the film to more theaters in October. The release gives Tariq a second feature after “Mogul Mowgli” and puts an original Black Muslim family story inside the framework of a hard-edged action thriller.

Ali plays Latif, a devout Muslim contract killer whose life fractures after his wife dies. With his children in danger, he crosses Houston while trying to balance fatherhood, faith and the violence that has supported his livelihood. The cast includes John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, Tiffany Boone, Tramell Tillman, Abubakr Ali, Laith Nakli and Adia. Tariq wrote and directed the film, with Babak Anvari, Lucan Toh and Tariq producing.

The film’s premise is more specific than its action-market packaging suggests. Latif is not simply trying to outrun enemies; he is confronting the moral structure that allowed him to function as a killer before becoming a widowed parent. The Houston setting and the film’s attention to Muslim practice give the story a point of view rarely treated as central in American studio-backed action cinema.

In a September 11 interview with TheWrap, Tariq described the project as rooted in personal family experience and discussed how developing “Blade” influenced his thinking about action, audience expectations and spectacle. That history gives the film a clean industry angle without making Marvel the main event. Tariq did not turn a canceled franchise assignment into another piece of franchise work; he used the collaboration with Ali to build a film around grief, belief and responsibility on his own terms.