Cadi means ‘the witch’ in Turkish, but other than the title, Erman Bostan’s movie doesn’t much resemble Robert Eggers’ 2015 horror masterpiece. The Turkish horror, actually, does remind you of Eggers’ latest, Nosferatu. I’m not a guy who brings up references every now and then just to prove I know my stuff, but the similarities are unmistakable here—there’s this haunted mansion, the lead character tries to save their spouse from a witch, and halfway into the movie, an expert comes onto the scene to help the hero out. That said, the plot of Cadi is quite messy, and the execution bogs it down further. Despite the interesting premise, it ends up being a lesser film. In this article, I’m going to try simplifying the plot and the ending of the movie for you—that’s what you’re here for, after all.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The Movie?
Set during the time of Sultan Abdul Hamid II of the Ottoman Empire of Turkey, Cadi begins with a woman frightened and running from a supernatural figure inside the mansion. Despite getting out of the mansion, she fails to find any respite as the witch (that’s what the movie is called, so it’s not hard to guess) chases her to the riverbank. Her fate is left unknown, but it’s not hard to conclude that it is the end of the road for the unfortunate woman. We do find out her name was Sukriye, and that she died by drowning in the water. She was the second wife of one Nasit Nefi, who is now looking for another wife to take care of him and his two children—Nesip and Ragibe—from his first marriage. Enter Fikriye, a young widow who’s married off to the man as the society (of that time) looks down upon such women and terms them ‘loose.’
At the mansion, Fikriye is introduced to Nefi’s butler Irfan, who’s an elderly woman, maid Gulendam—who looks after the house—and Salime, a mute woman who’s of the same age as Nefi. Salime has been living in the mansion since her childhood, ever since getting adopted by Nefi’s dead parents. After the initial awkwardness, Fikriye warms up to Nefi as he seems like a man who’s deeply committed in the relationship—even though it is purely situational. There’s one big problem for the young woman, though—the mansion is apparently haunted. When she asks Nefi about these rumors, he brushes them off. Irfan and Gulendam also don’t say much about them either. But Fikriye keeps experiencing strange things and senses a benevolent presence in the house. She notices Nesip and Ragibe receiving confectionery from someone, and upon asking, the children let her know that it’s from their mother. Obviously that is logically not possible, as Nefi’s first wife, Binnaz, is long gone. But Fikriye gets quite fixated on the woman, and slowly, she comes to the conclusion that there’s indeed a witch in the house—and it is Binnaz. From Irfan, she hears that Binnaz was not good to Nefi and the children as she was mean and short-tempered. Irfan even mentions that Nefi wasn’t particularly sad after Binnaz’s death.
Meanwhile, Nefi seems to be struggling with something terrible. We see him losing track of time, slipping through moments he doesn’t remember, mistaking another person as his own self, and so on. He even gets possessed on a boat ride in front of Fikriye, which further indicates that the witch is controlling the guy. Desperate to fix her husband and get rid of the witch for once and all, Fikriye considers exorcism. But Nefi’s colleague, Kenen—who’s actually a secret government agent—suggests she consult an expert called Anton Mesmer regarding this.
Does Anton Mesmer manage to help Nefi?
Mesmer approaches the situation from a rational perspective. He does acknowledge the supernatural, but he is not a believer in extermination through performing ritual. Instead, he decides to put Nefi under hypnosis. The reason behind that is to find the root of the evil that is possessing him. According to Memser, it is essential to address your internal fear in order to battle what’s troubling you. The problem, however, is that the writing of this part of the movie is quite weak, and it doesn’t go well with the initial set-up. It also doesn’t work because the audience is already frustrated because, by now, the movie has already taken quite a bit of time to come up with any kind of answer.
Anyway, we do find out that Nefi’s father was abusive, and the man used to torture him. His mother killed herself, most likely because of the father, and it was Irfan who brought him up. Irfan and Gulendam were always opposing Fikriye involving Memser and putting Nefi under his treatment, mainly because they didn’t want the truth to come out. Gulendam also happens to perform some ritual in order to keep the witch away. Anyway, not only do we find out about Nefi suffering abuse from his father, but it also becomes quite clear that Irfan poisoned Nefi’s father and killed him. She only did it to save the boy, though, but a crime is still a crime, so Kenen has no choice but to arrest her. It is also revealed that Nefi is actually Irfan’s son, while Salime is the daughter of Nefi’s father’s first wife. This practically makes Nefi and Salime half-siblings, although it doesn’t have any impact whatsoever on the plot of Cadi.
Who was the witch?
Gotta give it to Cadi for pulling off the twist here—Nefi himself is the witch. But I personally am not a fan of the whole split personality angle, mainly because of how it is incorporated into the narrative all of a sudden. Nefi conjuring up his many personalities, including the witch, does make sense; this is what many children do to find their way out of parental abuse. In the case of Nefi, however, he never got out of it. What’s even worse is he made the women he married suffer. Binnaz was mean to him for sure, but he practically allowed her to fall from the boat and drown. Irfan saw that from afar, but she didn’t do anything for obvious reasons. I was kind of baffled to see the movie not addressing Sukriye’s death even once. Nefi is responsible for that as well. Also, the presence of the supernatural is neither established nor thrown out, keeping the whole thing in a limbo.
Cadi ends with Nefi in a mental asylum where he’s being seen as the wife killer—even though he has already admitted that he didn’t intend to kill Binnaz. As far as Fikriye, she now has to raise Nesip and Ragibe with the hope of Nefi returning at some point and them finding their happily ever after.
