A devoutly religious hit man struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood in Director Bassam Tariq’s action thriller, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.

Tariq’s film tells the story of Latif, a Muslim contract killer who strictly follows his Islamic faith. When his wife suddenly dies, he is left to raise a teenage daughter, a preteen son, and an infant daughter who refuses to drink formula, setting him on a desperate journey to find frozen breast milk while protecting his children and confronting forces closing in as his beliefs threaten to unravel.

On October 10, after the DGA membership screening in Los Angeles, Tariq discussed the making of Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother during a Q&A moderated by Director Walter Thompson-Hernandez (If I Go Will They Miss Me) and revealed how observation is integral to his directorial process.

“I started off in documentary and what I loved about documentaries is it requires you to surrender and to learn and listen to the frame. You have to be patient because the world’s unfolding in front of you. Of course there is an element of you intervening in the frame, but how much you intervene is something that you’re always negotiating with. Whereas in fiction you say ‘Action!’ and then the film begins. And then you are intervening at every moment. But how do you create an environment where your characters are leading it? The way I saw it was like I’m an air traffic controller and I got everyone flying. I’ve got you all up in the sky. Y’all are flying now and I’m just going to help you guys land.”

Tariq’s other directorial credits include the feature films Mogul Mowgli and These Birds Walk and episodes of the series Bait. He has been a DGA member since 2021.