For his second feature film, Toronto-based Alireza Khatami tackles masculinity, shame, and the violence passed down through generations. A haunting, psychologically layered drama that explores guilt, memory, and the quiet violence people inflict on eachother (and themselves), The Things You Kill also delves into morally tightrope situations a the chain of consequences that we saw in his 2017 feature debut Oblivion Verses. Blending intimate character study with social critique, this Lynchian psychodrama shows that no matter how forcefully repressed—inevitably of the true always resurfaces.
Coming off a year that saw him premiere his sophomore solo feature film at Sundance back in January (he claimed the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic Competition) and then saw his co-written project Divine Comedy begining presented in the Orrizonti section in Venice, I had a chance to speak to the filmmaker a little bit after he learned that he was selected for the Oscar’s Best International Feature Film category. We discussed some of the ethical challenges in adapting the material, filming outside of Iran, and the conversations he had the public. The Things You Kill debuts theatrically today via the Cineverse folks.
