International Feature Competition

THE THINGS YOU KILL

Swiss Premiere
Alireza Khatami
France, Poland, Canada, Turkey
2025, 114'
Genre
Recommended Age
16 years
VO. Turkish
ST. French
With
Hazar Ergüçlü, Ekin Koç, Erkan Kolçak Köstendil
MULHOLLAND DRIVE X EVERYBODY KNOWS

Back in Turkey, Ali suspects his tyrannical father of involvement in his mother's sudden death. An opaque feature film about the madness of revenge and the grip of male violence.
After Terrestrial Verses (2023), Iranian director Alireza Khatami makes a foray into Turkey to offer a Sundance award-winning work dissecting the roots of male violence. A university professor of literature, Ali returns to Turkey to live in the pernicious family sphere he had fled, subject to Hamit, the deleterious head of the family. When his mother suddenly dies, Ali soon suspects his father and sets out to get to the bottom of it, with the help of Reza, a mysterious stranger he hires as a gardener. As much inspired by Iranian cinema as by David Lynch, this thriller questions, both frontally and metaphorically, the grip of toxic masculinity and its development in society.

Damien Brodard
Direction
Alireza Khatami
Image
Bartosz Świniarski
Editing
Selda Taşkın, Alireza Khatami
Sound
Benjamin Laurent, Ange Hubert
Production
Fulgurance Films, Remora Films, Lava Films, Tell Tall Tale, Band With Pictures, Sineaktif, Alireza Khatami
With
Hazar Ergüçlü, Ekin Koç, Erkan Kolçak Köstendil, Ercan Kesal
World sales
Best Friend Forever
Alireza Khatami
1980, Iran
Previous works
2017, Oblivion Verses (Feature, Director, Writer)
2023, Terrestrial Verses (Feature, Actor, Director, Co-Producer, Writer)
2009, Focal Point (Short, Director, Editor, Producer, Writer)
Saturday 1 Nov. 16:00
Théâtre Pitoëff

Friday 7 Nov. 16:30
Cinérama Empire