The Things You Kill
Iranian writer-director Alireza Khatami (Terrestrial Verses, SIFF 2024) won the Best Director prize at Sundance for this surreal psychological thriller about the distinct identities that exist within us and the existential struggle between them.
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Friday, May 23, 2025
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Saturday, May 24, 2025
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Ali thinks of himself as a modern man, progressive and self-aware. He teaches Comparative Literature at a university in Ankara; he cooks; he gardens; he regularly ventures back to his parents’ small town to help his sisters care for their ailing mother—something their more traditional father can’t be bothered to do. But there are cracks in this veneer as well, as Ali feels his masculinity called into question in both his personal and professional lives.
When his mother dies under dubious circumstances, Ali’s long-simmering rage at his father emerges. As his suspicions grow, so too does his desire for revenge. It’s about this time that an enigmatic drifter named Rıza arrives at the cabin he has outside the city, and negotiates a job tending to the land—and whatever other tasks Ali might send his way.
Iranian writer-director Alireza Khatami (Terrestrial Verses, SIFF 2024), who won the Best Director prize at Sundance earlier this year, cites David Lynch as a major influence on this film, which he also describes as deeply personal. The result is a surreal psychological thriller about violence passed down through generations, as well as the distinct identities that exist within each person and the existential struggle that may play out between them.
- Director: Alireza Khatami
- Principal Cast: Ekin Koç, Erkan Kolçak Köstendil, Hazar Ergüçlü, Ercan Kesal
- Country: Canada, Belgium
- Year: 2025
- Running Time: 113 min.
- Producer: Elisa Sepulveda-Ruddoff, Cyriac Auriol
- Screenplay: Alireza Khatami
- Cinematographers: Bartosz Świniarski
- Editors: Selda Taşkın, Alireza Khatami
- Music: Benjamin Laurent
- Website: Official Film Website
- Awards: Sundance Film Festival 2025 (Jury Award: Directing, World Cinema Dramatic)
- Filmography: Terrestrial Verses (2023), Oblivion Verses (2017)
- Language: Turkish
- Has Subtitles: Yes
- Format: DCP
- International Sales: Best Friend Forever