by Tim Gordon
In The Things You Kill, writer-director Alireza Khatami crafts a brooding and hypnotic meditation on grief, guilt, and vengeance. Set between the cultural dissonance of an exiled life and the fractured ties of family legacy, the film quietly simmers until it boils over into something both haunting and deeply human.
Ekin Koç delivers a quietly powerful performance as Ali, a Turkish-born professor living in the United States whose world is upended by the sudden and suspicious death of his ailing mother back home in Turkey. Ali returns not simply to bury her, but to dig into secrets, into grief, and into a past he never truly escaped. Consumed by a gnawing sense of guilt and suspicion, he becomes convinced that his estranged father may be responsible for her death. The emotional distance between them becomes not just personal, but possibly criminal.
As Ali’s pain deepens into obsession, he finds an unlikely confidant in Reza, a gentle but mysterious gardener played with quiet gravity by Erkan Kolçak Köstendil. Their growing friendship becomes the film’s moral fulcrum. When Ali enlists Reza in a plan for revenge, the film subtly shifts from a grief drama into a slow-burn mystery, less concerned with whodunit than with why.
Khatami’s direction is understated and assured, infusing even the quietest moments with a feeling of unease. Shadows linger longer than they should. Conversations unfold at the edge of confession. The camera often keeps a measured distance from its characters, allowing the space between them to fill with tension and memory. It’s a film that trusts its silences.
What makes The Things You Kill especially compelling is its psychological complexity. This isn’t a straightforward revenge thriller. It’s a study in projection and emotional fragmentation, a son mourning his mother, haunted by regret, and searching for answers that may not exist. As the layers peel back, what emerges is not a single revelation, but a series of emotional reckonings, each more painful than the last.
The third act, where many such films stumble, is where this one finds its stride. Khatami doesn’t deliver a tidy resolution, but instead builds to a moment of intense personal clarity, one that feels earned and inevitable. It’s not justice Ali finds, but a deeper understanding of the burden he’s been carrying.
The supporting cast, including Hazar Ergüçlü and Ercan Kesal, flesh out the emotional landscape with nuance, while the cinematography, drenched in subdued hues and melancholy light, enhances the film’s meditative atmosphere. The score, used sparingly, adds a layer of emotional disquiet, pulsing just beneath the surface.
If The Things You Kill has a flaw, it’s that its slow pacing and elliptical storytelling may alienate viewers expecting more traditional genre thrills. But for those patient enough to sit with its mood and themes, the rewards are rich. This is a film about the things we bury: memories, rage, grief, and what happens when they claw their way back to the surface.
Grade: B
