The Things You Kill

Ali, a gentle professor who has spent years caring for his mother and trying to build a quiet life with his wife Hazar, is haunted by the mystery of his mother’s death. After learning that his abusive father may have been involved, the grief and suspicion become a pressure that forces him to act. In a moment of violent resolve he digs a deep hole in his family’s garden and buries his father alive, hoping that this act will finally settle the past.

When the burial is complete a stranger named Reza appears – the very man who had helped him in the garden. Reza embodies everything Ali feels he lacks: confidence, willingness to seize what he wants, and a readiness to confront the violence that has lived inside his family for generations. As soon as the father is interred, the two men swap places: Reza takes Ali’s body and identity, while Ali is left chained in a dog‑cabin, reduced to a powerless figure.

The film then follows Reza‑now‑Ali as he investigates the family’s history, learning that his grandfather also abused his own son. This revelation makes the buried secret feel almost lifted; when he returns to the burial spot the body has vanished. The disappearance of the corpse symbolizes the end of the hidden narrative that has been driving his rage. With this new understanding, the chained Ali manages to overpower Reza, strangling him with the very chain that had bound him, thereby reclaiming his original self.

Immediately after the struggle, Hazar finds him, and the two make love – a quiet, intimate moment that signals a rebirth for Ali, a chance to move beyond the cycle of vengeance. Later, as he prepares to sell his father’s house – the physical reminder of trauma – a knock comes at the door. Opening it, he finds his father, scarred and bleeding, asking to be let in. Ali lets him rest on the floor and turns off the lights, an act that closes the room of his past. In this final tableau the film offers two reconciliations: the merging of Ali’s and Hazar’s dreams of a shared future, and a tentative peace between son and father, acknowledging the inherited violence while finally allowing it to die.

By the end, Ali does not erase the man he once was; he learns to translate that part of himself – to let the old self die so a new, more whole identity can emerge. The closing image of the darkened house suggests that the haunting has been put to rest, leaving Ali poised to become the father he has long wanted to be.

Last Updated: December 27, 2025 at 21:41