The Things You Kill

Ali has suspicions about the death of his mother and so, with the help of a mysterious new acquaintance, seeks revenge. A son confronts the mistakes of his father in this simmering, long-fused drama examining the far-reaching legacies of familial violence.

“Agony seems reserved solely for women”, quips Nesrin to her brother Ali, who feels adrift after the sudden demise of their mother and guilty about having neglected her during his long stay abroad. Convinced that there was foul play in her death, Ali sets out to avenge his poor mother with the help of a man whom he befriends on his trips to his isolated cabin outside the city.

Following Terrestrial Verses co-directed with Ali Asgari (IFFR 2024), Alireza Khatami returns to the festival with a very different but equally subversive work in The Things You Kill. Set and filmed in Turkey, Khatami reflects on the malaise of masculinity and the legacy of paternal violence. Through both a familial and a broader historical perspective, Ali’s physical, psychic and professional hangups are revealed to be more than just personal issues. 

With its sentient, gradually drifting camera, The Things You Kill draws viewers into Ali’s world. Straddling the structural tyranny of social life and the primal instincts of frontier existence, Khatami’s film drives a political dagger into the heart of a hypocritical society.

– Srikanth Srinivasan

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