The Things You Kill
Directed by Alireza Khatami
Questioning the suspicious death of his mother, a university professor and his enigmatic gardener descend into a hypnotic maze of mirrors and memories. As family secrets surface and painful truths emerge, they spiral toward a devastating reckoning with the darkness lurking within us all.
Where to Watch The Things You Kill
- Kevin WardJune 30, 2025The 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.
The Things You Kill Trivia
The Things You Kill was released on April 25, 2025.
The Things You Kill was directed by Alireza Khatami.
The Things You Kill has a runtime of 1h 55m.
The Things You Kill was produced by Elisa Sepulveda Ruddoff, Michael Solomon, Mariusz Włodarski, Alireza Khatami, Cyriac Auriol.
Questioning the suspicious death of his mother, a university professor and his enigmatic gardener descend into a hypnotic maze of mirrors and memories. As family secrets surface and painful truths emerge, they spiral toward a devastating reckoning with the darkness lurking within us all.
The key characters in The Things You Kill are Ali (Ekin Koç), Reza (Erkan Kolçak Köstendil), Hazar (Hazar Ergüçlü).
The Things You Kill is a Thriller, Drama film.