There is something poetic about Mahershala Ali and director Bassam Tariq finally getting their moment together on screen. The two were first paired in 2021 when Tariq was set to helm Marvel’s long-gestating “Blade” reboot, with Ali reprising the iconic vampire hunter. Tariq eventually exited the project over creative differences, and the MCU film has been spinning in limbo ever since. But the two men clearly did not leave that situation holding grudges, because they are back together and making something that looks far more personal and far more interesting.

Their new collaboration, “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother,” is set up at Amazon MGM Studios’ Orion Pictures, directed and written by Tariq, and follows Ali as a father living a secret double life as a hitman. The film is set in Houston, Texas, and was unveiled to industry audiences this week at CinemaCon, where exclusive first footage reportedly left attendees equal parts shaken and moved.

What audiences saw was not your standard action fare. The footage opens with Ali’s character refusing to pray at a mosque, a man clearly wrestling with grief and a growing estrangement from his faith. From there, the film sketches out the full architecture of his daily life: hustling to make ends meet by selling perfume out of his car while secretly working as a blade-wielding hitman. The tension between those two worlds forms the emotional spine of the story.

The title itself draws from a well-known Islamic hadith that speaks to the elevated status of mothers. That is not a throwaway detail. In a film about a man trying to honor parenthood while living in deep moral shadow, the title carries real weight. It asks a question the audience will have to sit with long after the credits roll: Can a person truly revere motherhood, protect their children and still operate as an instrument of death? There are no easy answers here, which is exactly what makes this worth watching.

Ali spoke at CinemaCon alongside Tariq, and his enthusiasm for the project was unmistakable. He said he had been looking for something more physical, and that this action thriller was exactly the movie he wanted to make. For a two-time Academy Award winner known for quiet, interior devastation in “Moonlight” and “Green Book,” the idea of Ali in full kinetic mode is genuinely exciting. He most recently captivated audiences in Sam Esmail’s Netflix thriller “Leave the World Behind,” which became one of the platform’s most-streamed films ever. This next chapter feels like a natural and thrilling escalation.

The supporting cast assembled around him is nothing short of extraordinary. Giancarlo Esposito, who has spent years perfecting the art of menace from “Breaking Bad” to “Better Call Saul” and “The Mandalorian,” brings exactly the kind of cold, calculating intelligence a film like this demands. Tramell Tillman, who broke through as the deeply unnerving Mr. Milchick on the Emmy-winning series “Severance,” adds yet another unpredictable and riveting presence to the ensemble. John Cho, whose character reportedly warns Ali that his children will be removed from his life the moment law enforcement discovers his secret, is positioned as a powerful moral counterweight in the story.

Rounding out this exceptional lineup are Tiffany Boone, fresh off her role in “Mufasa: The Lion King,” Abubakr Ali of “Anything’s Possible,” Laith Nakli from “Problemista,” Adia of “Full Circle” and Jahleel Kamara, known for his powerful work in “Nanny.” Tariq is producing alongside Lucan Toh and Babak Anvari of Two & Two Pictures. That is not just a supporting cast. That is a full ensemble assembled with awards season in mind.

Tariq himself is a filmmaker with a proven eye for cultural specificity and emotional depth. His 2020 debut “Mogul Mowgli,” about a Pakistani British rapper navigating sudden illness and questions of identity, earned him the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and announced him as a singular voice in contemporary cinema. The pairing of that directorial vision with the controlled, transformative power Ali brings to every role makes “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” one of the most compelling original films in the entire Amazon MGM pipeline.

The film does not yet have a firm release date, but it sits within a broader and ambitious theatrical push from Amazon MGM Studios, which used CinemaCon to signal its full commitment to the big screen experience. The studio’s slate stretching into 2027 includes “Masters of the Universe,” “Verity,” “The Beekeeper 2,” “The Thomas Crown Affair” and “Spaceballs: The New One.” Amazon MGM is clearly playing for keeps.

But among all of those marquee titles, “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” stands apart. It carries the unmistakable signature of a film made with real intention, one that dares to ask what it means to be a protector when your methods of protection are themselves a source of destruction. That is heavy, meaningful territory. In the hands of Mahershala Ali, Giancarlo Esposito, Tramell Tillman, John Cho and one of the most distinctive writer-directors working in the industry today, it looks like it could be something truly extraordinary.