Time was that Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) was lined up to helm the much-anticipated reboot of Blade, with Mahershala Ali (also currently in Wildwood) in the title role. Ultimately, the film was consigned back to development hell but, for the director and his star, the Marvel film lit a spark, and the result is Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which puts a multitude of themes – grief, religion, culture and violence – in the spotlight. It’s a big ask for Tariq in what is his most ambitious and personal project to date.

Latif (Ali) is a devout Muslim with three children – a teenage daughter, a young son and a baby girl who is currently being breastfed. He’s also a hitman, one who justifies his actions by believing that his victims have offended God, but has concealed his profession from everybody in his family, with the exception of his wife. Her sudden death leaves him bereft and facing a serious problem. Aside from being under pressure from his shady boss, his baby daughter won’t drink formula and, with supplies of her mother’s milk in the freezer running low, he has to find a supply elsewhere. To complicate matters, he comes up against hellfire preacher, Pastor Hwan (John Cho, lightyears away from Star Trek’s Mr Sulu), who conducts most of his crusade with an AK-47.

The idea of a moonlighting Muslim assassin scouring the streets of Houston in Texas for breast milk sounds surreal, yet in the hands of the film’s director and star it’s completely credible. Indeed, it’s inspired by Tariq’s own experience of trying to find breast milk for his baby son in New York when his own wife was in hospital. That authenticity, coupled with Ali playing to his strengths of power and dignity, makes for a compelling watch, with the actor giving one of his best performances.

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His grief at the death of his wife and devotion to Islam both run deep, so much so that the collision of the two produces a crisis of faith, and his relationship with his two older children is touching, with more than a few cheeky laughs. There’s something almost unbearably heartwarming at the sight of a big, muscular man tenderly cradling a baby, regardless of what he does for a living. For his day job, he’s fearsome, dressed in black like an avenging ninja and wielding a deadly sword.

All of which makes Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother sound sombre. Yet, while it tackles serious themes, the film definitely has a sense of humour which borders on the joyously ridiculous. It ranges from the hitman’s young son, Qadir (an endearingly cheeky Jahleel Kamara), to Latif’s boss’s nephew, Hatty (Abubakr Ali), whose luxury lifestyle comes from pornography but who is constantly an accident waiting to happen – and it frequently does. There’s also a nicely-pitched running gag about the family’s Mormon neighbours who have no idea that the eldest daughter is making full – and free – use of their wifi, although you suspect they probably wouldn’t mind. It all provides an effective counterbalance to the film’s intensity.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is an ambitious film. Tariq uses it to open a door on Muslim life and the mosque in particular, so we’re left in no doubt that it’s not exclusively a house of prayer. This is a social centre, one that’s right at the heart of the community, so that any attack is an attack on them all. Yet there’s still a sense that perhaps the director has tried to pack too much into his film. Mixing so many big themes in what is close to being a neon-infused modern western feels like a step too far. But when the experience is so engrossing and uplifting and powered with such force by its leading man, you can forgive it.

Playing at the BFI London Film Festival on 17^th and 18^th October. / Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, Abubakr Ali, Adia, Jahleel Kamara / Dir: Bassam Tariq / Amazon MGM Studios / 15

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