Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

A man came to the Prophet and asked the Prophet 'who deserves the best of me?' The Prophet said 'Your Mother.'
It goes on. The man asked 'then who?' The Prophet said 'Your Mother' again.
'Makes sense. And then who?' The Prophet said again, 'Your Mother.'

Latif (Mahershala Ali, "Moonlight") is a devout Muslim, yet makes his living as a contracted hit man for Mike Mahmoudi (Laith Nakli, TV's 'Ramy'). After brutally killing a man in a men's rest room with his sword and his fists, Latif receives a phone call from his teenaged daughter Fatiha (Adia), tearfully informing him that her mother, Khadijah, has died. Latif's idea of his own identity will be turned inside out as he must bridge the gap left by his late wife to protect his three children in "Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother."

Laura's Review: B+

With his very first scene writer/director Bassam Tariq ("Mogul Mowgli") illustrates the duality that is Latif when, finding the paper towel dispenser in the men's room empty, he gets a baby wipe out of his backpack to clean off his sword. The new widower will receive sympathy at his Houston mosque, but his Iman, Abdul Malik (Giancarlo Esposito, TV's 'Breaking Bad'), castigates him for killing a man when he'd sworn off doing hits in front of his wife. Latif defends his actions, noting that the man he dispensed with had killed a holy man, but Malik insists that violence has no place, only love.

Back home in the modest apartment redolent of Khadijah, Latif becomes alarmed when he realizes the breast milk she pumped for their baby
Aziza is almost gone, barging into Fatiha's room to declare the emergency. Fatiha, who accuses her father of having never been around enough and who silently rebels against the strict religious rules he follows, tries formula against his wishes, but the baby throws it up. This will begin a quest that strips Latif down to his basic nature.

When he turns to Mike for help, the man demands he get rid of a Korean pastor, Hwan Yoon (John Cho, "Columbus"), who is after his nephew Hatty (Abubakr Ali, looking like a bleached blonde Christopher Abbott). It is evident why when an enraged Latif finds Fatiha with the baby and her younger brother Qadir (Jahleel Kamara) on a party bus full of the hookers Hatty has hired to film for his burgeoning porn empire, but later Fatiha will tell her father that one of them, who she can only identify by a tattoo on her breast, offered to nurse their baby. Latif manages to track her down via Hatty, but when Hatty threatens his old Koran teacher's family, Latif beats him, cuffs him and throws him into his car. He arranges to meet Fugazi (Tiffany Boone), not thrilled that she's chosen a strip club, but when she tells him it's been converted to a church and he realizes he's been lured by Christian Pastor Hwan Yoon (John Cho, "Columbus"), he'll be caught in a vise grip between the pastor and Mike over Hatty and innocents will get caught in the escalating crossfire.

Tariq was inspired by his own experience with fatherhood, but he took it to another level wrapping those emotions into an action thriller which also explores various faiths (at one point, Latif and his family take refuge with a group of Mormon missionaries who live on the floor below, an amusing segue). Ali, clad in a crocheted cardigan perhaps made by his wife and various colored prayer caps (costume design by Deirdra Govan), is a fascinating figure, his stoicism giving way to panic as his family is endangered, his physicality impressively balletic in fight choreography. As the three figureheads who influence his fate, Esposito is spiritual light, Nakli corrupted faith and Cho, flamboyantly attired in a cowboy hat and fringed shirt, his teeth sporting a grill, Latif's Christian counterpart in a role unlike any other of his, both in a battle of beliefs. But the essential relationship here is between Ali and Adia, who slowly come together from opposing corners, captured while they are separated with magical imagery by Katelin Arizmendi ("Swallow"). The cinematographer uses close ups for both threats and intimacy, her color palette favoring golds, greens and red. Son Lux's ("Everything Everywhere All At Once") score is an emotionally expressive soundscape.

"Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother" concludes with a moment of grace and love after all the mayhem. And that Hadith segment which opens the film? It has the perfect fourth reply.

Amazon/MGM released "Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother" in select theaters on  9/25/26, opening wide on 10/9/26.