Interview with Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother Writer/Director Bassam Tariq

A New Kind of Action Thriller

Hot off the incredibly well received world premiere at TIFF 26, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother hits theaters nationwide this Friday, September 25th. The new action thriller from Amazon Studios marks the return to the big screen for Mahershala Ali and allows writer/director Bassam Tariq to show his talents for storytelling. Your Mother x3 is a new kind of action thriller, one that is as emotionally charged as it riveting. It injects a layered character study at its center and never forgets the humanity of its story and characters, setting it apart from its peers and marking it as one of the most exciting films of the year.

We got a chance to sit down and talk with Bassam about Your Mother x3, who offered some insight about the project and how personal it was for him. Born out of the pandemic when he felt his ready to be a big filmmaker but the world shut down right as his opportunity arrived, Bassam sat down and started creating a very personal story and commentary about a derailed journey.

[Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother] comes from the reality in 2014 when my wife gave birth to our first child. She was unfortunately sent to the ICU  cause she had an infection and we weren’t sure if she was gonna make it. I was with my son and he only took breastmilk and he was not taking any formula…we didn’t even know anything about expressed milk, so it was just me, me and this infant because I barely knew this child, right?…and I’m trying to take care of this child while I’m calling places trying to find break milk…people thought I was prank calling them most of the time…

Inspirations and The Power of Mahershala Ali

Bassam was also inspired by Ghost Dog, which is applies a man on a mission who is also devout to his ethical code. Even before he every met Mahershala Ali, he had him in mind for the lead character of Latif. After the MCU Blade fiasco, it brough them together and their connection to each other and the material was instantaneous.

This is made for Mahershala…That’s his magic. He’s a got way he brings character’s to life. Like the gait; Mahershala doesn’t walk the way Latif walks. There’s an effortless way that he just brings these characters to life…It was just exciting to see how he also then just brought along the cast. Because when you’re number 1 on the call sheet, everyone’s looking to you.”

Religion, Faith, Mercy, and Forgiveness

Religion plays a huge part in Your Mother x3. We asked Bassam about his inclusion of multiple religions and why he wanted to center the core of the story around those themes.

When you start writing, you don’t think ‘I wanna dispel stereotypes’ there’s none of that, I’m just trying to write from a really honest place. So for him being Muslim to me was him following a kind of ethical code. And for him wanting to be a part of this community that I’m also from, I think what I love about religion is that it has these ideas of mercy and grace at the center of it…as an immigrant growing up in Houston and New York, working class people are generally people of faith, that’s what I’ve found. And I wanted to have that throughout the entire thing…It’s really easy to wag our fingers at some of these…a lot of these people are really sincere, but a lot of what see online is heightened.

Nothing But a Good Time…And Maybe Some Tears

We talked about a whole lot more, including the action sequences, character development and searching for something, and what Bassam hopes people will take away from watching Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.

I want people to leave with expanded hearts. I think the power of filmmaking leads to expansion. Maybe if you have kids you hug your kids a little bit harder, you have a mother you call her…filmmaking allows you to see the world in a different way and the other thing I’ll say is I just want people to have a damn good time.

You can check out our full interview below and read our full review here.