Mahershala Ali’s new film Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother has made a strong debut at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, currently holding a 100% Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Bassam Tariq, the action drama stars Ali as a solemn hitman caught between his faith, his violent profession and his responsibilities as a father.
Ali plays Latif, a contract killer living in Houston whose life changes after his wife dies, leaving him to raise their three children on his own. As he attempts to leave his violent profession behind, he is pulled back into a dangerous world while trying to protect his family.
But Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother is not simply a hitman thriller. The film uses its action premise to explore faith, grief, fatherhood, motherhood, and moral struggle. Latif’s religious convictions are an important part of his character, creating an internal conflict between the life he has chosen and the values he believes in. The Guardian described the film as a soulful combination of pulpy action and family drama, praising its nuanced treatment of Latif’s faith and grief.
The Meaning Behind the Title
The film’s title comes from a well-known hadith about the importance of one’s mother. When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was asked who was most deserving of a person’s good companionship, he named the mother three times before naming the father.
That teaching carries particular weight in the film as Latif becomes a widower and struggles to care for his children without their mother. Motherhood and family are therefore not simply elements of the film’s title, but central to its emotional story.
Tariq, who grew up Muslim in the United States, has described the film as deeply connected to his own experiences and upbringing. Reuters reports that his wife and their experience of becoming parents also influenced the film, which explores faith and family through a distinctly personal lens.
A Muslim Protagonist at the Center
One of the film’s notable elements is that Latif’s Muslim identity is woven into the story rather than treated as a background detail. His relationship with his faith becomes part of the film’s exploration of violence, responsibility and redemption.
The story also features other religious figures, including Giancarlo Esposito as an imam and John Cho as Pastor Hwan, allowing the film to explore different understandings of faith and morality. The Guardian notes that the film avoids turning its religious characters into simple caricatures, instead using them to deepen the story’s questions about belief and human behavior.
The movie also marks a long-awaited collaboration between Ali and Tariq. Before Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother, the pair were attached to Marvel’s Blade, with Ali set to star and Tariq originally serving as director. Tariq eventually left the project, and the planned version of Blade never reached production.
Ali has since said he has moved on from the Marvel project, while describing Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother as the beginning of his “action era.” The film gave him the opportunity to explore the physical demands of an action role while remaining grounded in a character-driven story.
The film also stars John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, Abubakr Ali and Laith Nakli.
With its combination of action, family drama and questions of faith, Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother offers a very different kind of role for Ali and a distinctly personal film from Tariq.
The film is scheduled for a limited U.S. theatrical release on September 25, 2026, with a wider release planned for October.