(director/writer: Bassam Tariq; cinematographer: Katelin Arizmendi; editor: Cam McLauchlin; music: Son Lux; cast: Mahershala Ali (Latif), Giancarlo Esposito (Abdul Malik), Tramil Tillman (Talib), Abubakr Ali (Hattie), Tramell Tillman (Dr. Taliib Rashid, Latif’s younger brother), Adia (Fatiha, teenage girl), Jahleel Kamara (Qadir, age 10 son), Jaxon Hughes (Aziza, baby girl), Shakirah DeMesier (Khadijah, Latif’s wife), Tiffany Boone (Fugazi), John Cho (Pastor Hwan), Laith Nakti (Mike Mahmoudi, Latif’s boss); Runtime: 111; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Bassam Tariq, Lucas Toh, Babak Anvari; Orion Pictures; 2026-UK/USA)
“A strange film.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Bassam Tariq (“Mogul Mowgli”/”These Birds Walk”) stylishly directs and writes a spirited neo-western that blends together action, pulp and drama. It’s a strange film about keeping the Muslim faith as told by a serial hitman.
The devoutly religious blade-wielding hitman, Latif (Mahershala Ali), has diapers with him when involved in a restroom brawl where he uses the diapers to clean-up a bloody mess he makes.
The Houston residing Latif is a former teacher of prayer, who has become a self-righteous assassin of those who offend Islam. He’s a father on a guilt trip, whose family is trying to maintain its Muslim faith. His father-in-law is the Imam (Giancarlo Esposito), who supports him to a point but questions his violent actions.
Latif has 3 kids – the infant Aziza (Jaxon Hughes), his 10-year-old son (Jahleel Kamara) and teenage daughter Fatiha (Adia). On his last job, he finds his dead wife (Shakirah DeMesier) on the floor and carries away her corpse.
The infant is allergic to formula milk and needs to be breast fed, which has Latif in a frantic search for the milk. He turns to a sex worker (Tiffany Boone), and wrestles with his hypocrisies over keeping the faith through his unorthodox practice.
We meet pastor Hwan (John Cho), an Iraq war vet, supposedly arisen from the dead, turned evangelist preacher, using his gun to get his Christian message across. The sardonic film has these two as warring foes. It allows these disturbing fanatics to be shown as functioning in the same way to use their religious beliefs to excuse their crimes. The film’s message is against such hateful acts and the need to be compassionate.
It’s an original arthouse film that points out serious contradictions about being devout if you act incorrectly. The performance by Mahershala Ali and directing by Bassam Tariq are quite good.
It played at the Toronto Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 10/20/2026 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com