The Things You Kill – Film Review
Reviewed by Harris Dang on the 13th of June 2025
World Sales: Best Friend Forever presents a film by Alireza Khatami
Written by Alireza Khatami
Produced by Alireza Khatami, Elisa Sepulveda Ruddoff, Cyriac Auriol, Mariusz Włodarsk, and Michael Solomon
Starring Ekin Koç, Erkan Kolçak Köstendil, Hazar Ergüçlü, and Ercan Kesal
Cinematography Bartosz Swiniarski
Edited by Alireza Khatami and Selda Taskin
Rating: TBA
Running Time: 113 minutes
Release Date: TBA
The Things You Kill is about Ali (Ekin Koc), a Turkish literature professor facing a heavy burden in his life. His job position at the university is about to become redundant, he often visits his mother who needs constant care, he has several acres of fruit produce that need tending to, and after many failed attempts, he is still trying to conceive a baby with his veterinarian wife, Hazar (Hazar Erguclu).
His reputation in the family is poor, particularly through the eyes of his father, Hamit (Ercan Kesal). Ali is verbally knocked down by him due to his impulsive actions, most notably for deciding to take a trip to America for 12 years.
Unfortunately, things take a turn for the worst when Ali’s mother dies after an accidental fall. Blame is shifted through the family, anger is thrown back and forth, and the grieving process begins. Ali notices things that indicate that his mother’s death may not be accidental, leading him to suspect his father. With the help of his gardener, Reza, Ali devises a retaliation plan. Little does Ali know, his actions will take him down a rabbit hole that will illuminate him about his father and himself in ways he could never imagine.
The Things You Kill is the latest film from writer/director and co-editor Alireza Khatami, who is best known for making the omnibus drama film Terrestrial Verses (2023). His latest work was very well received earlier this year, when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Critics enjoyed it and audiences were drawn to it to the point that it led to post-film in-depth discussions, resulting in Khatami winning Best Director at Sundance. Does the film earn its accolades?
The film starts off well. It opens with an inspired opening shot as Ali and his wife talk about a dream Ali had involving his father, which brilliantly foreshadows the story’s gradual tone. The film then establishes its characters succinctly and the stakes deftly—all seen through Ali’s point of view. The narrative is seemingly undertaking a predictable route of grief, anger, and revenge, resulting to an inevitable outcome.
Here is where Khatami pulls the wool over the audience’s eyes and takes the narrative to new heights. Without spoilers, the film presents its characters through different points of view. This leads the narrative to dramatise a what-if scenario that explores the consequences in relation to family legacy, toxic masculinity, existentialism, generational trauma, and translating/interpreting events. While that may sound jarring to what had preceded it, Khatami shrewdly foreshadows with his opening scenes as well as through the lectures that Ali teaches his students. It is no coincidence that the character names of Ali and Reza serve as parts of Khatami’s first name.
Thanks to the assured editing by Khatami and Selda Taskin and the intricate cinematography by Bartosz Swiniarski, Khatami resorts to surrealism and dream logic in his storytelling to convey his themes. The notion is, what would happen if the son became more like his projection of his father no matter how much he tried to avoid tempting fate? Using multiple character perspectives, clever foreshadowing, shrewd use of non-sequiturs (the use of a gun is ironically funny), mirror shots to convey a sense of eerie déjà vu, and distinct choices in character appearances, the film is a family drama but also a character study, a psychological thriller, and a social commentary on Turkey’s patriarchal society.
It also helps that the characters, all portrayed with subtlety from the cast, are all distinct, three-dimensional, and never feel like narrative symbols. From Ali, Hamit, Hazar, Ali’s sisters, the “third wheel” woman Hamit was seeing, all the characters are given depth and nuance. While some have tragic backstories involving abuse, they give the characters detail. Their stories do not define them nor explain them.
Overall, The Things You Kill is an inventive, entrancing, and foreboding piece of work that takes its standard boilerplate family drama narrative to new heights thanks to its psychological underpinnings, sterling filmmaking, and great performances from the cast. Recommended.
Summary: An inventive, entrancing, and foreboding piece of work that takes its standard boilerplate family drama narrative to new heights thanks to its psychological underpinnings, sterling filmmaking, and great performances from the cast.
4
Recommended
Related Posts
EDDINGTON – Trailer, Poster, and Synopsis →
Mirrors No. 3 – Film Review →
Late Shift – Film Review →
