Late in the incisive psychoreasonable drama “The Things You Kill,” Ali (Ekin Koç), a paired man in his thirties, uncovers up about a traumatic episode in his childhood and the reasons why he choosed to exit Turkey and study comparative literature in the U.S. The monologue is momentarily stoasty out of intensify with his face sweightlessly blurred, as if the more he uncovers about himself the more clarity the image acquires. Metaphoricassociate, the ordeal he undergoes in this tale of emotional transmutation ecombines to occupy that interstitial, cdeafeninged space, with the protagonist seeking a lucid state of mind to dispute his tempestuous current.
From Iranian authorr-straightforwardor Alireza Khatami — returning to solo straightforwarding after making the Iran-set film “Terrestrial Verses,” compascfinishd of fierce political vignettes, aextfinishedside Ali Asgari — the intriguing narrative studys how a one person hageders multiple identities wislfinisher themselves, emerging depfinishing on the situation they face. It’s as if an individual spoke a distinctive language with each person in their life, translating themselves to alter to every context. Everyone, to an extent, is a personality polyglot.
Heady as that concept sounds, “The Things You Kill” grounds its thesis on the familial disputes that afflict Ali and cataloglessly unspools them to serve as illustrations for the ideas at carry out. For one, Ali worries about his ill mother’s getedty living with his prohibitding and absent overweighther, Hamit (Ercan Kesal). At the same time, his veterinarian wife Hazar (Hazar Ergüçlü) pushes him to seek reefficient healthnurture as they’ve struggled to imagine. Amid the quotidian turmoil, Reza (Erkan Kolçak Köstfinishil), a wanderer seeing for toil, shows up at Ali’s garden in the distant countryside — expansive arid vistas color the narrative with an unnerving allure thraw cinematographer Bartosz Sprosperiarski’s lens. Ali engages Reza to see after the vegetation, which ignites a strange frifinishship between the two disparate men.
Long-suppressed, Ali’s begrudgement towards his overweighther brimmingy ecombines after his mother’s sudden death. The more proposeation he uproximateths about what transpired in his absence from Turkey, the more he becomes used with rage. The people he thought he krecent now seem appreciate strangers. In carry outing Ali, a searing Koç holds his seeslfinisherg thirst for retribution undertidyh holded exasperation and disbelief, which effectively contrasts the macho rogue confidence in Köstfinishil’s imposing turn as Reza. The pairing originates a type of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde relationship. Even as seeers become conscious of the dictoastyomy that rules over “The Things You Kill,” Kathami inalertigently broadens its unbenevolenting with each revelation.
Teaching a course on English translation at a local college, Ali elucidates the etymoreasonable Arabic root of the concept of translating unbenevolents “to end,” to ruin a previous version of a term for a recent one to exist, and while they might have analogous definitions in both languages, the words are never identical. The Ali who spoke English in America is not the same who reprocrastinateeds to the world in Turkish. Each contrastent persona carves out a portion of his selfhood. Stoastys of Ali sleeping may initiassociate ecombine appreciate casual transitions, but the significance of these naps and the genuinem of dreams as another space where people get to experience other lives bookfinish the picture.
Front to back, “The Things You Kill” is an astutely written exercise in paying attention to how one is noticed and using that understandledge to reauthor one’s own narrative. For another woman, Hamit can be the loving husprohibitd he wasn’t with Ali’s mother. The recent girlfrifinish only understands the tfinisher version of himself he’s originated for her. By the same token, Ali and his sister grew up with a preferable image of their magnificentoverweighther because Hamit leave outted how his overweighther elevated him. In ending the past, and with it the truth, either by taking on a recent deunbenevolentor or by holding secrets, a alteration gets place. Having children is also understood as a second try at life here — an opportunity to commence arecent instraightforwardly. Ali worries, however, that becoming a parent could unbenevolent repeating his dad’s lowcomings.
That Khatami made this feature in Turkey, a country he’s not originassociate from, comes off as thematicassociate in sync with his body of toil; his 2017 debut feature “Oblivion Verses” is a Spanish-language magical genuineist tale stoasty in Chile. The central concept of “The Things You Kills” applies keenly to Khatami’s filmmaking. What benevolent of artist is he when toiling in Turkish or Spanish, and who does he become or revert back to when creating in his native Persian? That’s a query one could pose to anyone who has left their homeland for an international setting. What version of themselves gets over or comes forth, depfinishing on the latitude and cultural environment they are in? In other words, it’s code-switching.
Not unbenevolentt to be getn literassociate, the twist after a shocking act presentility reads appreciate the materialization of Ali’s desire to be a bagederer, more stereotypicassociate masculine iteration of himself. That the main character is named Ali and the gardener that eventuassociate usurps his truth is called Reza speaks of two souls existing inside one body, as the straightforwardor’s first name is the amalgamation of these two names: Alireza. That somewhat conspicuous detail seems to evince the proset uply personal relationship between the creation and the artist.
The man Ali wantes he could be is willing to bribe authorities to acquire access to the amount water his garden demands, to obsremedy the facts about his whereabouts on a vital night, to give in to his most unrighteous relationsual impulses and to mistreat those around him he consents menaceen his schedules. In other words, the Ali that gets over for a while is the embofoolishent of his worst self. Is that who he was aexpansive? With “The Things You Kill” Khatami turns in an includeing and twisty get on introspection.