Sundance Film Festival 2025 – Writer/director Alireza Khatami‘s The Things You Kill is a sophisticated thriller about overcoming family trauma. It’s also a complex exploration of masculinity. The film’s protagonist, Ali (Ekin Koç), struggles to escape the long shadow of his abusive father, Hamit (Ercan Kesal), while ensuring he doesn’t inherit some of his old man’s worst traits. This is a well-crafted film with clear-eyed symbolism that enriches its themes.

Ali’s life isn’t going as he planned. After studying comparative literature in the U.S., he returns to Turkey, working as an adjunct instructor at a local university. His ailing mom dies fairly early into the film. Ali suspects his father isn’t completely honest about the circumstances of the mother’s death. Ali also believes his mother was forbidden from leaving the house much. Additionally, evidence suggests Hamit abused his wife.

Regardless of how the mom died, there’s obvious rot within the family. This is symbolized rather bluntly through plumbing. The pipes beneath the parents’ house are old and need to be replaced. Ali struggles to water his large garden because of a water blockage. Meanwhile, Ali struggles to conceive a child with his wife, Hazar (Hazar Ergüçlü), because of his low sperm count. This only worsens tension within their marriage. Yes, there’s a lot going on within this dense film, especially among the characters’ interpersonal relationships.

This film deals so much with identity and trying to rewrite our own personal narratives. There’s a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde aspect to so many of the core characters, especially the men. Hamit is indeed an abusive jerk. However, he shows tenderness to his girlfriend, even though he cheated on his wife and may have had something to do with her death. Yet, Hamit’s girlfriend only knows the softer, sweeter side of him.

Ali, meanwhile, tries his hardest not to exhibit his father’s horrible traits, but he doesn’t always succeed. There’s also a point in the film where Koc and actor Erkan Kolçak Köstendil switch playing Ali. Köstendil also plays Reza, a drifter that Ali hires to tend to the garden. Yet, Ali eventually discovers that Reza graduated from Harvard. So much of this film deals with duality and does it quite well. All of these characters have secrets, which slowly surface.

Though the film focuses on character, patriarchy, and family secrets, it does unleash a few surprising moments. This is especially true near the halfway point when Ali makes some surprising decisions. There are revenge elements here, though that’s not the main focus of this film. Don’t go into this feature anticipating a pure revenge thriller. That’s only a small element.

Khatami’s third film is a slow-burn mystery loaded with symbolism about identity and masculinity. Overall, this is a complex feature that transcends the usual revenge thriller.