The Things You Kill: A Psychological Masterpiece That Haunts and Transforms
Alireza Khatami's stunning third feature operates on multiple levels of consciousness, creating a hypnotic meditation on masculinity, identity, and the violent inheritance of patriarchal trauma. Following Ali, a Turkish literature professor who returns from America to find his mother dead and his tyrannical father potentially responsible, the film evolves from family drama into something approaching the psychological complexity of Lynch's Lost Highway.
The Iranian-Canadian director, working with Turkish actors in his most ambitious project yet, has crafted a film that defies easy categorization. Ekin Koç delivers a searing performance as Ali, a man caught between his progressive American education and his Turkish roots, embodying what Khatami calls "code-switching" between different versions of masculinity. When enigmatic gardener Reza (Erkan Kolçak Köstendil) arrives offering to help Ali seek vengeance against his father, the film transforms into something far more complex than a simple revenge narrative.
Khatami's direction is nothing short of masterful in its precision. The filmmaker, who studied under Asghar Farhadi but cites David Lynch as his primary influence, creates a visual language that supports the film's psychological complexity. Cinematographer Bartosz Świniarski captures the arid Turkish landscape with unsettling beauty, using extended takes and strategic focus shifts to suggest the dream logic that increasingly dominates Ali's reality.
The film's most stunning technical achievement involves two jaw-dropping mirror shots that critics have compared to Zemeckis' Contact. These sequences, executed in both directions, create a sense of reality folding in on itself that perfectly supports the film's themes of identity fragmentation. The production design by Meral Aktan uses symbolic elements—broken plumbing, blocked water pipes—to reflect the family's psychological dysfunction.
What makes The Things You Kill particularly remarkable is its exploration of cultural identity through the lens of trauma. Khatami's script, 70% based on personal experience, uses the Arabic etymology of "translate" (meaning "to kill") to suggest that cultural adaptation requires destroying previous versions of oneself. The film's title becomes a double entendre: both the literal violence Ali contemplates and the metaphorical deaths required for transformation.
The supporting performances are equally compelling, with Ercan Kesal creating a terrifying portrait of patriarchal authority as Ali's father and Hazar Ergüçlü providing emotional grounding as Ali's wife. The film's confession scene reportedly "scared everyone" during production, suggesting the intensity of the performances.
Khatami's achievement extends beyond individual craft elements to create a cohesive vision that operates on multiple levels. The film works as realistic family drama, psychological thriller, and meditation on cultural identity simultaneously. The Sundance jury's decision to award Khatami the World Cinema Directing Award feels richly deserved, recognizing a filmmaker who has created something both deeply personal and universally resonant.
The Things You Kill confirms Khatami as a major voice in contemporary world cinema, demonstrating that the most powerful films about cultural identity emerge from the complex psychology of transformation itself. It's a film that will haunt viewers long after the credits roll.