It isn’t hard to see what attracted Oscar-Winning actor Mahershala Ali to the film “Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother.” Ali who played Juan, a drug dealer who becomes a father figure to a young boy in “Moonlight” and a Black musician fighting racism in “Green Book” has always been drawn to characters battling conflict.
In “Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother,” a title which is a direct reference to a well-known Islamic Hadith, he brings balance and stillness to his performance. When we first meet his character Latif, he is in full battle in a public bathroom. Swords and fists colliding in a brilliant action sequence. After he kills the assailant, he wipes off the blood from his weapon with baby wipes. We soon learn that he is a killer for hire who recently lost his wife and is taking care of three kids that include a newborn who is allergic to formula and is in dire need of breast milk.
Fervent religiosity and fatherhood does not mix well for the sword-wielding assassin who is also a devout muslim and it is his quest to feed his baby that accelerates the drama.
From his battle with Pastor Hwan Yoon, the charismatic Christian minister portrayed by John Cho who is hellbent on his own brand of community cleansing, his disagreement with Abdul Malik, the respected Muslim imam portrayed by Giancarlo Esposito, moral ambiguity extends throughout the film as every character is operating according to his or her own understanding of obligation, morality and faith.
A killer capable of tenderness one moment and extraordinary violence the next, Ali, known for his intensely controlled performances carries the movie with quiet reserve. There’s a scene where he discovers inappropriate content on his daughter’s Fatiha’s (Adia) laptop and his character’s quiet resilience in dealing with the situation is pure brilliance.
For Ali, the role offered something increasingly rare: a character who could not be reduced to a single trait or archetype.
“My first reaction was, ‘Finally,’” he says of his initial read of the script. “It is difficult in this work to locate something for yourself that checks these boxes. The combination of things, from the manner in which you must go to also being able to ground it all in a real believable violence, gives the film a breadth that I haven’t had an opportunity to participate in as an actor. As an actor, I’ve been waiting to flex and use certain muscles [no pun intended!] while I can. I’m a former college athlete and I’ve never had the chance to use those things since I have been acting and I was so excited to finally get to do that.”
Carnage and chaos follows when the grieving husband, devoted father, religious Muslim and professional killer is pulled into a high-stakes hit job by his employer, a Muslim crime boss. As he struggles to hold his family together, he is caught between grief and his obligations to his faith and children.
“No matter what point you enter the story from, there is so much to get from this film. Something to find for yourself. But as a father there are so many lessons to be learned,” says Ali.
Written and directed by Bassam Tariq, “Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother” sketches the line between insanity and spirituality and is Ali’s strongest film because it is also his most ambiguous.
The film which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival also stars Abubakr Ali, Laith Nakli, Tramell Tillman, Tiffany Boone and Jahleel Kamara and is set for international expansion in October.
Samantha Ofole-Prince is a U.S. based journalist and movie critic who covers industry-specific news that includes television, film and music.
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