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The Things You Kill

Directed by Alireza Khatami

2025 1h 53mThriller, Drama

6.996%

Haunted by the suspicious death of his ailing mother, Ali, a university professor coerces his enigmatic gardener to execute a cold-blooded act of vengeance. As long-buried family secrets resurface, the police tighten their noose, and doubts begin eroding his conscience, Ali has no choice but to look into the abyss of his own soul.

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Cast of The Things You Kill

Ekin KoçAli
Erkan Kolçak KöstendilReza
Hazar ErgüçlüHazar
Ercan KesalFather / Hamit
Serhat NalbantoğluUniversity Admin
Aysan SümercanAunt/ Melahat
Selen KurtaranNesrin
İpek TürktanPervin
Sertan MüsellimKemal
Onur TanyeriClerk
Doga DortdoganMina
Güliz ŞirinyanSakine
Alireza KhatamiDirector / Writer / Producer
Elisa Sepulveda RuddoffProducer
Cyriac AuriolProducer
Mariusz WłodarskiProducer
Michael SolomonProducer

The Things You Kill Ratings & Reviews

Kevin WardJune 30, 2025
The Things You Kill is a brooding, elliptical study of grief, inheritance, and the cyclical nature of violence—familial and otherwise. Directed by Alireza Khatami, the film follows Ali (Ekin Koç), a literature professor whose quiet life in rural Turkey unravels after the suspicious death of his ailing mother. Grief quickly gives way to revelation as Ali begins to suspect his estranged, abusive father may have been behind it. The most interesting thematic here is the idea of transformation as a kind of self-erasure. In one of his lectures, Ali explains that the Arabic root of "translate"—rajama—can also mean "to kill." It's a potent metaphor for the film itself: to carry oneself across the abyss of trauma is to kill the self that bore its weight. Resonantly, Ali decides to take vengeance into his own hands—and the hands of his newly hired gardener, Reza. But as Ali’s violent path unfolds, the film asks: is Ali that different from his father? What happens when you kill a version of yourself? What’s left behind? Is a new self born in its place? Motifs of burial, water, silence, and fertility run deep—and there’s so much more to unpack. The gardener’s name, Reza, paired with Ali, forms a quiet doubling of the director’s own name, Ali-Reza, making the film’s structure and themes even more curious. A thought-provoking thriller.

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