The TIFF51 Experience: Day Three | Letting One Film Wait
By Ross
The third day of TIFF began with a decision that felt almost unnatural for someone who has come to the festival wanting to see as much as possible: When the alarm went off at 6am, I stayed in bed. After Thursday’s food poisoning knocked me sideways, I knew getting up early for “Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” would cost me something I might need later in the week. As fascinating as Bassam Tariq’s film sounded, I made the difficult call to sleep in and let that screening go, hoping I’d find another opportunity to see it down the road. There is a strange kind of discipline in admitting that you need to miss something, especially at TIFF, where every film feels like an invitation that may never come around again, even though it most likely will. So I slept, recovered, and headed out for “Being Heumann“, hoping that the rest would give me enough in the tank to keep going for the rest of the festival
Here’s the one I missed:
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Bassam Tariq – WORLD PREMIERE – United States of America | 2026 | 112m | English
Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (TIFF ’18 People’s Choice Award winner Green Book) stars as a devout Muslim, loving family man, and contract killer in this audaciously inventive Texas-set action thriller from writer-director Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli).
A showcase for the immense range and singular magnetism of Oscar winner Mahershala Ali (TIFF ’18 People’s Choice Award winner “Green Book“), the latest from writer-director Bassam Tariq (“Mogul Mowgli“) is an audaciously inventive Texas-set action thriller in which the line that separates religious devotion from righteous bloodshed evaporates in a cloud of mayhem.
Latif (Ali) is a devout Muslim and a loving family man who also happens to be a contract killer. He has a strict code: he never uses guns, and he only accepts targets the world would be better off without.
After his beloved wife dies, Latif resolves to end his criminal career and focus on caring for his three children — but his longtime employer Mike (Laith Nakli, TIFF ’25’s “Lucky Lu“) has other plans. Latif is having a hard enough time finding breast milk for his baby girl and wants no part in Mike and cowboy Haun Yoon’s (John Cho) rapidly escalating feud but, as his bloodstained past comes back to haunt him, he may have no choice in the matter.
“Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother” — its title a reference to an Islamic hadith — is a wild ride, overflowing with spectacle and suspense, tenderness and violence. As Latif navigates a minefield of viciousness and fanaticism, he’s also forced to confront his own moral hypocrisies. Only Ali could embody such a delicate balance of menace and grace. – ROBYN CITIZEN
And here’s the one I saw:
Being Heumann
Siân Heder – WORLD PREMIERE – United States of America | 2026 | 127m | English
Featuring a breakout performance by Ruth Madeley and Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo (TIFF ’15’s Spotlight), this inspiring historical drama from Oscar-winning filmmaker Siân Heder (CODA) celebrates the paradigm-shifting activist Judy Heumann, “Mother of the Disability Rights Movement.”
All screenings will be presented with open captions. ASL interpreters and live captioning will be present for the live onstage components during the screenings on September 10 and September 12.
Every bit as moving as her Best Picture Oscar-winning film, “CODA“, Siân Heder’s “Being Heumann” tells the remarkable true story of the woman who led a world-changing campaign for accessibility. Judy Heumann rallied a handful, then dozens, then hundreds of ordinary Americans with disabilities to push the US government to live up to its commitments.
The year is 1977. Raised in Brooklyn by German Jewish immigrants, and using a wheelchair since a childhood case of polio, Judy Heumann (Ruth Madeley) knows it takes grit and tenacity to get things done. So when Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano (Mark Ruffalo) refuses to sign meaningful regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the first national civil rights legislation designed to provide protections for people with disabilities, Judy devises a plan to force his hand, beginning with the occupation of a federal building in San Francisco, before going all the way to DC — and Califano’s front door — with a diverse team of self-described “radical crips,” creating solidarity through coalitions of marginalized groups.
The signing of 504 seems an impossible dream — Califano keeps reminding everyone that the Rehabilitation Act’s price tag is in the billions, and that pushing it through will cost him his job — but Judy and her crew have courage and a flair for media attention on their side. Though set in the past, “Being Heumann” couldn’t be more pertinent to our present. When change can seem overwhelming, we need heroes like Judy to galvanize us.
Somehow, that decision to stay in bed gave the afternoon more air, and it made the screening feel even more precious. “Being Heumann” was an exceptional, emotional, and enlightening experience, and it was the first moment all day when I stopped thinking about what I had missed and simply let the film take me where it wanted to go. I still have more to say about Siân Heder’s film when I write the full review, but today it was enough to sit there and feel the impact of what I was watching and hold it tight. TIFF can ask a lot of you, but it also gives something back in those moments when a film reaches you exactly when you need it. Yesterday I needed to go home. Today I needed to sleep. And then I needed a movie to remind me why I got out of bed and came back to the festival in the first place.
