With "The Things You Kill," Alireza Khatami films the nightmare of male violence in Türkiye.

THE OPINION OF “THE WORLD” – TO SEE

The new film by Iranian filmmaker Alireza Khatami, co-director of Tehran Chronicles (2024), immediately places itself on the side of dreams. At the opening of The Things You Kill , Hazar (Hazar Ergüçlü) tells his companion Ali (Ekin Koç) about a scene that came to him in his sleep where his father-in-law, arriving as if stunned, asked him to "kill the light." This logic of displacement of reality, even in language, then permeates this thriller, which won awards this year at the Sundance Film Festival and then at Reims Polar.

The first discrepancy is geographical. The dissident Iranian director, who has been living in Canada for many years, did not shoot this new film in his native country but in Turkey, without this choice bringing a real sense of change of scenery. It is there, in a remote province, that Ali, a literature professor, returns to live with his partner after years of exile in the United States.

Alireza Khatami nonetheless remains true to his political concerns, with The Things You Kill tackling the theme of male violence head-on. Ali reunites with Hamit (Ercan Kesal) in Turkey, a tyrannical father he fled and whom he suspects of abusing his mother, who is forced to use a walking frame to get around with difficulty. When she dies suddenly after a bad fall, his son sees it as a murder disguised as an accident.

You have 57.34% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.