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Bassam Tariq pivoted from Marvel's stalled Blade reboot to direct Mahershala Ali in the thriller Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, premiering at TIFF.
Filmmaker Bassam Tariq has moved from Marvel's stalled Blade reboot to direct Mahershala Ali in a new thriller, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which premiered at the Toronto film festival. The film, a pulpy samurai-coded neo-western, explores grief, spirituality, violence, and the culture in America. Tariq says he is happier he made this movie.
From Blade Reboot to New Thriller
Tariq was set to direct Marvel's Blade reboot, with Mahershala Ali attached to star as the vampire-slayer once played by Wesley Snipes. The project stalled, and Tariq departed in 2022. He describes the moment: We were very close to shooting when the pencils went down. Even though we had no script, which is why it shut down.
He says they had action sequences planned after a year and a half of prep, including fight training and choreography for Ali. That was Marvel's process at the time: the action comes first, allowing time for VFX and set design, and the rest comes after. Tariq compares it to Bollywood: You have dance scenes. Figure out all the choreography. And then we'll figure out what the story is later. Now not moving forward until they have a great script.
Tariq adds that he is not trying to throw any shade on the writers, noting they had big shoes to fill given that the original Blade in his mind was a near-perfect movie. They worked really hard on it. It's just a very tough thing to crack. He says he is more than at peace with how everything turned out.
Exploring Faith and Violence in Houston
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is a visceral and stylish genre thriller, akin to Steven Soderbergh's The Limey by way of Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive. It is also a textured portrait of Houston, navigating the city's cultural tapestry and the hostility between its siloed faiths and ideologies.
The conflict plays out between Ali's Latif, a devout Muslim and contract killer who fashions himself a righteous killer, and Pastor Hwan, a militant evangelical Christian posting fire-and-brimstone sermons online while waging a heavily armed and brutally violent religious crusade. Latif justifies his violence as divine retribution, dispensing victims he believes to have offended God. His sword, according to Tariq, is part of Latif's code, a negotiation with his faith. You are forced to strike with intention when you use a sword, Tariq says.
Tariq describes a palpable contrast between what he calls the era in New York, where he lives, and Houston, where he grew up. Something that I found particularly in Texas, where I started writing is, whether they're religious or not, people are connected to the third spaces that are religious. All the social services are cut. So, if you're going to go hang out or play basketball, it'll probably be at a mosque or a church. You end up being a part of those communities. At the same time, you can start building dogmatic ideas, We're better than other people. The nature of it has been really politicized. I think it's a dark moment right now.
Personal Grief and Fatherhood
The seeds for the film were planted after Tariq's harrowing experience following the birth of his first child in 2014, when his wife had an infection that sent her to the emergency room. My son was only breastfed at the time, Tariq says. So I had to go around New York City trying to find breast milk for my son. I couldn't find it anywhere.
Tariq says he and Ali connected on these things while working on Blade. You might have heard of it, he says cheekily. The fallout from the aborted Blade reboot has become an intricate part of Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother's lore.
The film fearlessly cuts through that tension while capturing what makes those communities vibrant and inspiring, searching for hope in its heartfelt interrogation of faith and fatherhood. Those themes were especially important to Tariq and Ali.
Toronto Premiere and Family Support
Tariq is a mix of nerves and excitement the evening before Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother premieres at the Toronto film festival. He is taking a moment for the interview before settling back in with his family, including two kids aged 12 and nine. They are in town for the occasion and have been along for the whole ride, from the writing process in Houston to production in Atlanta, observing on set, during ADR and the sound mix.
I'm trying to just keep everyone close, he says, tying that ethos to the story, which is ultimately about a father's wayward journey back to his kids. You live the movie that you make.
Bassam Tariq Mahershala Ali Blade Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother Toronto Film Festival Marvel Houston
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