Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
There aren’t many movies these days that center themselves on the faith of their characters. The drama Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is about a devout Muslim struggling to take care of his three children after the sudden death of his wife. The screenplay understands and respects his religion as much as he does. He is a true believer in an honest, deeply spiritual way. He is also a hitman.
That dichotomy does nothing to lessen how he feels about his faith, his family, his mosque or his God. He lives in two worlds, keeping his home life in one and his professional life in the other. The fact that both of these aspects live inside the same man, taking up equal space, and remaining at peace with each other, is fascinating. Of course, that delicate balance is broken when he has to step up as a father, causing his profession to intrude on his attempts to be a caregiver, but it doesn’t move this in a traditional genre direction.
This is essentially a character study about grief, faith and love. Does doing what you have to do in order to protect your children still honor God if it involves taking lives? What if you are doing so in His name? Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (105 minutes, minus the end credits) does not merely pay lip service to its themes as a setup for action. It takes them very seriously. I suppose this could be classified as a thriller. There are a couple of well-choreographed fight scenes. However, that material is there to deepen the story, not to be the story. This is a thoughtful, insightful, drama that lends a unique perspective to a seemingly familiar plot.
Latif is a very religious Muslim, to the point where it is a key part of his identity. He also works for his friend Mike, who pays him to kill bad people. When Latif’s wife dies, leaving him to care for their teenage daughter, Fatiha, ten-year-old son, Qadir, and infant daughter, Aziza, on his own, Mike takes offense to him changing his priorities, putting Latif’s family in harm’s way.
Though some who know what he does see Latif as a hypocrite, being a man of God and a hired killer, he does not. He sees it as an extension of his faith. It is made a big point early on that Latif does not use a gun. He uses his hands, up close, intimate, like he himself is the weapon, being wielded by God. As soon as his wife passes and he realizes what his new path is, the other part of his life is no longer important. Eventually, Mike approaches him with a new job: Latif needs to kill a radical pastor who is targeting Mike’s porn-producing nephew, Hatty. This, again, is not just empty tension.
Pastor Hwan is basically a bigoted cult-leader who thinks he has the right to murder anyone he does not see as righteous. He thinks Hatty is a trafficker and intends to “cleanse” his mansion. It is almost a mockery of what Latif is. The difference is, to Latif, God is not a symbol to excuse what he does. God is the reason. That is the biggest message he wants to impart to his children.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother starts and ends awkwardly. Yet writer/director Bassam Tariq has crafted something so specific out of something potentially derivative. What he has come up with makes for an engaging experience, featuring a tremendous lead performance from Mahershala Ali. This is definitely one not to be missed.
4 out of 5
Cast:
Mahershala Ali as Latif
Adia as Fatiha
Jahleel Kamara as Qadir
John Cho as Pastor Hwan
Abubakr Ali as Hatty
Laith Nakli as Mike Mahmoudi
Giancarlo Esposito as Abdul Malik
Written/Directed by Bassam Tariq
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