Bassam Tariq's 'Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother' Finds Its Form in Failure

Bassam Tariq is currently in Austin to revisit the University of Texas, where he graduated, but his presence at the Austin Film Festival stems from a different creative origin. He is there to discuss Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, a film that exists because a major Marvel production collapsed. The movie tells the story of Latif, a Black Muslim hitman in Houston who must confront his faith after the death of his wife. It is available on video on demand now.

Tariq was originally attached to the stop-start production of Blade for Marvel, with Mahershala Ali cast as the titular vampire hunter. When that project fell apart, Tariq and Ali used the momentum to develop a new script. Ali had previously suggested that Tariq use the title from a different, less successful script for this story. The result is a film that explores the internal conflict of a man who still believes in Allah but is no longer prepared to perform piety.

The collaboration between Tariq and Ali was essential for capturing the specificities of the Black Muslim experience in the United States. Tariq admitted that he initially brought his own South Asian baggage to the production. He realized he had to relearn the culture to avoid inaccuracies. Ali led the process of selecting Latif's wardrobe, which Tariq described as a second skin. The character’s kufi, shalwar trousers, and tunic speak to his heritage, while his tagelmust turban references West African anti-colonial protesters and Sufi liberation movements.

Tariq cited historical figures such as Omar al-Mukhtar in Libya and Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba of Senegal as influences on Latif’s appearance. He noted that in Sufi traditions, knowledge is passed from people rather than books, similar to the student and master dynamics in Samurai or Jedi narratives. This lineage informs the character’s crisis, which is not about losing belief in God, but about the performance of faith. The film builds toward a surrender to reality and genuine grief, rather than a dramatic rejection of religion.

The setting of Houston was chosen for its lawlessness, which Tariq compared to the Wild West. This atmosphere allowed him to channel the themes of honor and principle found in Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. Tariq argued that religion provides a set of codes that can be dogmatic, but the concept of grace makes it compelling. He defined grace as forgiving someone when you do not believe they deserve it. This theme runs through the film’s depiction of a confrontation between a Muslim Black man and a Korean Christian in a porn mansion.