
The Things You Kill: A Mind-Bending Investigation of Generational Trauma
Film Reviews
Sundance Film Review: The Things You Kill
Director: Alireza Khatami
Band With Pictures, Fulgurance, Lava Films
Premiere: 01.24
“No one is resentful by nature.”
To designate The Things You Kill as a “revenge film” feels reductive. In fact, it’s a film that defies strict categorization. It’s a simple premise at face value, but contains multiple thematic layers that unfold brilliantly, commenting on strained family relationships, the false narratives we placate ourselves with, cultural hegemony and the traumatic traditions that get passed down through generations. It’s a revenge film, family drama, psychological horror and existential commentary all rolled into one. Somehow, director Alireza Khatami pulls it off.
Ali (Ekin Koç), a linguistics and interpretation professor in Turkey, is struggling to balance his familial relationships with his busy life. His wife (Hazar Ergüçlü) wants to start a family, but Ali is too preoccupied taking care of his ailing mother while constantly butting heads with his aggressive father. To blow off steam, Ali spends time in his garden outside of the city, where he meets a stranger (Erkan Kolçak Köstendil) who offers to help him tend to the plants. After Ali’s mother dies under suspicious circumstances, he begins to suspect his abusive father was involved. He enlists the help of his gardener to exact revenge on his father, but it doesn’t provide the catharsis he hopes, and Ali finds himself quickly sliding down a slippery slope of lies and deceit.
The film is steeped in rich symbolism. It thrives on ambiguity to build a sense of mystery and intrigue, and it quickly becomes apparent that our narrator is anything but reliable. That said, Koç’s lead performance is so captivating and deeply emotional that at a certain point, one can’t help but start to root for him. Khatami has stated that roughly 70% of the film is pulled from personal experience, and his own emotional investment in the narrative is obvious through its passionate presentation.
Given that Khatami was born and raised in Iran, along with the film’s focus on familial drama and use of long takes set against the backdrop of sweeping landscapes, the comparisons to Abbas Kiarostami are obvious. Yet The Things You Kill contains a darker, meaner streak than the legendary Iranian director’s films. Khatami also cited the late David Lynch as inspiration for the film, and while the term “Lynchian” is employed perhaps too liberally these days, his influence here is undeniable, particularly in the ways in which The Things You Kill depicts psychological pain and suffering.
There’s an eerie surrealism that blankets the entire film, and without giving too much away, there are also echoes of Ingmar Bergman (particularly his film Persona) as the film’s second half employs a creative decision so bold that it will leave some audience members scratching their heads, while others will declare it a genius move. I fall in the latter camp. I think I could have spent most of this review talking about the film’s “twist” and its thematic relevance, but that might be an essay for a later time. This is a film better experienced than explained.
The Things You Kill is an audacious film, and remarkably, it manages to hit all the right notes without sinking under the weight of its own ambition. Such a thematically dense film deserves multiple viewings to truly unfold — I feel as though I barely scratched the surface upon my first watch. It’s a difficult film, one that challenges audiences to extend themselves and meet it on its own terms. But committed viewers are sure to find plenty to mull over in this rich text, which will likely be bouncing around in their mind for days. It’s not an exaggeration to say that The Things You Kill may easily be declared a modern masterpiece of Middle Eastern cinema in the years to come. —Seth Turek
Read more of SLUG’s coverage of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.