The Things You Kill

Ali and his wife Hazar discuss her dream, in which Ali's father knocks on the door, demands to come inside, then lies down and asks for the light to be turned off. The dream frames a menacing return of the past into their home. It sets a tone of fear and foreboding that shadows the couple's living situation.

Ali visits his ailing mother at a dilapidated house where the indoor toilet is broken. He discovers a gun hidden in a bag in the septic tank. He offers to pay for the toilet repair to spare his mother further discomfort, but his father shames him and sends him away.

Ali confronts personal and professional pressures as he learns about his infertility and fears for his university job. He keeps the infertility secret from Hazar while the prospect of losing his position looms. The double burden deepens his sense of embarrassment and isolation.

Ali's mother dies after being found face-down in her locked home; Hamit finds the body but delays calling the family. Ali confronts his father, who shames him in front of their relatives. The event leaves Ali distraught and fuels his decision to remain in Turkey, despite having previously left the US.

At a farm on the city's outskirts that Ali is trying to revive, he meets Reza and hires him as a gardener. Reza is visibly intimidated by Ali's large dog. Reza begins outlining what the farm will need to become productive, starting with a deep well and the machinery and permissions required.

As Ali's stress over infertility and job security grows, Reza insists the farm will need a deep well to become fertile, a project that will require machinery and planning permission. The talk of the well becomes a symbol of hope—and an escalating dependency—inside Ali's life. Ali's isolation from Hazar deepens as the project advances.

Driven by rising pressures, Ali begins to investigate his mother's death. He learns that she was struck with a fatal blow to the back of the head, despite being found face-down. The discovery leads him to suspect his father and fuels his resolve to uncover the truth.

Ali and Reza kidnap Hamit and drive him to the desert to dig a shallow grave. Reza beats Hamit unconscious and orders Ali to fill the grave. Ali melts into tears as the moral weight of the act bears down on him, but Reza threatens him to stay compliant.

Reza chains Ali in the farm shelter where the dog once lived, effectively taking over his life while no one notices. Ali's wife leaves, fed up with being shut out. Reza, now working at the university, tries to sleep with a student in exchange for a higher grade, and later confronts his father's mistress at the parents' home.

Reza reports Hamit missing and bribes a local official to help dig the well on the farm, keeping Ali chained away from view. They learn that Turkey bans sperm donors, so they decide to sell Hamit's home to raise money to seek a donor abroad, upsetting Ali's sister who still hopes Hamit might return.

Reza visits Hamit's sister, their aunt, who fears for her missing brother. She explains how Hamit bore a scar from a scorpion sting when she was a child and that their abusive father caused the injury. Reza learns that Hamit avoided condemning their father, continuing a pattern of silence.

Reza returns to Hamit's grave and finds it empty. Ali pretends to be unconscious, then rises and strangles Reza to death with a chain. He buries Reza's body on the farm and resumes his life, returning home to make love with Hazar.

Hamit's car is pulled out of a dam by authorities who believe his body was washed away. Ali informs Hamit's mistress that he is dead, further severing ties with his past.

At the university, Ali argues that his job should be saved, explaining that he fled Turkey because of fear of his father but that he is not afraid anymore. He frames his transformation as a return to control and stability.

Police determine the father's death, and the family house goes up for sale. At night, Ali processes the sale and goes to sleep when a knock sounds at the door. His father, bleeding from a head wound, demands to come inside and asks for the light to be turned off. Ali complies as a chorus of dog barks rises outside, and another knock echoes through the night.