Cinematographer Katelin Arizmendi Talks Shaping the Look of Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Katelin Arizmendi, the cinematographer on Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, has described how she and director Bassam Tariq found the film's visual style. She spoke about the work with The Hollywood Reporter at the Torun Camerimage festival in Poland, an event built around the craft of cinematography.
A cinematographer, also called a director of photography, decides where the camera sits, how the frame is lit and how colour and light set a mood. Those choices shape how a scene feels long before the audience thinks about them. Arizmendi said she and Tariq worked out the film's visual language together.
The film stars Mahershala Ali as Latif, a devout Muslim and professional assassin. His life changes when his wife dies and he is left caring for their three children. Adia plays Fatiha, and Jahleel Kamara plays Qadir.
For Arizmendi, this was her first film in the action genre, a category known for chase scenes, fights and fast cutting. Stepping into that territory meant new kinds of camera work and new questions about how to stage physical movement so the audience can follow it.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, one of the biggest showcases in the film calendar, where buyers and critics see new films before they reach cinemas. It later reached American audiences through Amazon MGM Studios, which released it in the U.S. on Sept. 25.
Festival appearances like Camerimage give crew members a chance to explain choices that audiences rarely notice. Arizmendi's account offers a look at the team behind the image, the people who decide how a story is seen as well as what happens in it.
