Mahershala Ali plays sword-wielding hitman father as Amazon sets Sept. 25 release
Mahershala Ali picks up a sword as Latif, a contract killer and practising Muslim father, in Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother. Amazon will release the film in the United States on Sept. 25 after its bow at the Toronto festival, according to Variety.
The film is directed by Bassam Tariq as his second feature after Mogul Mowgli, Variety reported. Tariq stages the violence up close, with swords rather than gunfire driving the action.
The unusual triple title comes from an Islamic hadith, a recorded saying of the Prophet Muhammad. Asked who most deserves companionship, the answer comes back “your mother” twice over, a point about maternal duty that gives the film its name, according to Variety.
At home, Latif is trying to parent. Teenager Fatiha is played by Adia and eight-year-old Qadir by Jahleel Kamara. Work pulls him away from them and across Houston, where a job forces family life and criminal life together, as reported by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
The job has a hierarchy. Laith Nakli plays crime boss Mike, with Abubakr Ali as his nephew Haddy. On the other side stands John Cho as Hwan Yoon, a Korean-American pastor and ex-Marine leading a Texas church, with a violent streak of his own, according to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.
Ali said he had been “yearning” to lead an action film of this kind, The Hollywood Reporter reported. He told Variety that worlds were colliding every day and in every scene on that set.
That action appetite has invited comparison to Blade, the vampire-hunter project Ali was once attached to lead. Variety headlined its Toronto coverage “Mahershala Ali Finally Made His ‘Blade’ Film With ‘Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother’” and previously reported that Ali is happy starring in the Tariq film instead.
Jourdain Searles reviewed the film for The Hollywood Reporter, which described it as a tense crime story with a strong emotional pull.
What makes this stand out is the combination. Prayer and parenting sit inside a hitman story. A Houston parish sits near a crime crew. No cape. The test comes quickly, with US audiences able to see the result from Sept. 25.
