Khatami’s meditation on gender, family, and power was originally set in contemporary Iran but moved to Turkey when Khatami faced issues with Iran’s censorship office. Sadly, much of it translates all too well, arriving as Turkey’s authoritarian leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is reasserting traditional gender norms under the banner of so-called family values.
In The Things You Kill, the new film from Toronto-based Iranian director Alireza Khatami, a harrowing instance of femicide serves as a mirror to a society buckling under the weight of patriarchy. The unnerving psychological thriller—Canada’s submission for best international feature film at next year’s Academy Awards—follows Ali, a literature professor reeling from his mother’s suspicious death, who, in the process of confronting the toxic masculinity around him, instead becomes ensnared in it.
In The Things You Kill, the new film from Toronto-based Iranian director Alireza Khatami, a harrowing instance of femicide serves as a mirror to a society buckling under the weight of patriarchy. The unnerving psychological thriller—Canada’s submission for best international feature film at next year’s Academy Awards—follows Ali, a literature professor reeling from his mother’s suspicious death, who, in the process of confronting the toxic masculinity around him, instead becomes ensnared in it.
Khatami’s meditation on gender, family, and power was originally set in contemporary Iran but moved to Turkey when Khatami faced issues with Iran’s censorship office. Sadly, much of it translates all too well, arriving as Turkey’s authoritarian leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is reasserting traditional gender norms under the banner of so-called family values.
Looming over Erdogan’s “year of the family” is a sustained assault on feminists in Turkey.
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