Bassam Tariq's 'Your Mother' Forged From Scrapped Blade — SkimNews
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- Bassam Tariq directed 'Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,' starring Mahershala Ali as Latif, a Muslim hit man in Houston who must find breast milk for his infant daughter while managing warring religious factions after his wife's death.
- The premise was sparked by Tariq's 2012 experience when his wife was hospitalized after childbirth; he recalls strangers 'thought I was a pervert' when calling around to buy breast milk for their newborn.
- Marvel's 'Blade' had Tariq directing and Ali starring before the project was scrapped, prompting online harassment from 'fanboys'; Tariq responded by writing a script that was 'completely mine,' with the lead character literally named 'Mahershali Ali' before the two had met.
- The title derives from an Islamic hadith in which the prophet says 'your mother' three times before naming the father, anchoring a story about a widower forced into his wife's caregiving role.
- Supporting cast includes Giancarlo Esposito as Latif's disappointed imam, John Cho as a gun-toting cult pastor, and Abubakr Ali as the founder of a Muslim porn empire inspired by real-life adult site Brazzers.
- In a divisive narrative choice, Latif is riddled with bullets in a final showdown then resurrected when his young daughter Fatiha prays for him — Tariq says 'I'm nervous that we will lose people' over the miracle.
- Tariq calls the film 'a samurai film' in which 'a man has to kill all the versions of himself to finally be the father that he needs to be,' and says he aimed to create 'a new archetype for a Muslim man.'
Why it matters: After Blade fell apart and he was harassed by 'fanboys,' Tariq says losing the Marvel gig freed him to write a 'completely mine' script built around Mahershala Ali's 'dignity and grief.' The result: a Houston-set film mixing gunfights, a resurrection miracle, and an Islamic hadith about maternal devotion — terrain he says he 'hasn't seen on film.'
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