’10 Days of a Good Man’ (Original title: Iyi Adamin 10 Günü) is a recent Netflix release that revolves around lawyer-turned-private investigator Sadik. In this Turkish crime thriller, we witness ten days from his life, as suggested in the title, where he tries solving a case. As an eternal fan of Philip Marlow and The Long Goodbye, Sadik continues his work while having conversations with himself.
Directed by Uluç Bayraktar, the film is written by Damia Serim and is based on Memet Eroglu’s novel ‘Iyi Adamin On Günü.’ If you’re reading further, please be aware that there are spoilers ahead.
10 Days of a Good Man (2023) Detailed Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis
In his past life, Sadik (Nejat Isler) was a reputed lawyer. But now he lives in a dilapidated house and works as a private investigator. After daydreaming about his ex-wife, Rezzan (Nur Fettahoglu), he opens the door for his attractive neighbor, Fatma (Ilayda Alisan). She asks him to fight her case against her employer, Cemile, who threatens to fire her from her job as a prostitute. He refuses to go back to the way of his old life of the law. Instead, he prefers to smoke cigarettes while watching his obsession – The Long Goodbye, on television.
Later, he goes to meet his friend and attorney, Maide, in her office. She asks him to work on a case of her babysitter – Yeter’s son- Tevfik’s (Ata Artman) disappearance. While she sees no hope in it, she still asks Sadik to pursue it. So, he goes to Yeter’s place and speaks with her about Tevfik. She has only good things to say about Tevfik, while his sister, Pinar (Ilayda Akdogan), thinks otherwise. She has a hint of the terrible things Tevfik is connected with but tells Sadik only about questionable check-up parties that Tevfik frequently visited.
Later, Sadik sees Pinar getting in a car with Maide’s husband, Macit. Sadik follows her and asks her in detail about Tevfik’s check-up parties in exchange for secrecy. She says they happened only on Thursdays and tells him to contact the beauty salon with Tevfik worked to learn more about it. Over there, Sadik meets Tevfik’s colleague, Ali, who says he isn’t aware of Tevfik’s personal life but points him toward a pharmacy he frequented. Sadik goes there to meet its manager – Ahmet, who gets panicked the moment Sadik mentions Tevfik.
While Sadik becomes certain of Ahmet’s shadiness, he gets captured by two men who push him into their car and take him to a gangster called ‘Sir.’ This man was also looking for Tevfik and tells Sadik to notify every detail of his investigation. Back at his place, Sadik starts thinking about Ahmet, Ali, and Sir. After thinking about his work, he loses himself in the reverie, where he is spending time with his ex-wife on a tropical island. He also recalls a real incident where he was betrayed by her.
The next morning, Sadik meets Fatma, who is crying because her employer took away all her money because she left the job. While dealing with the issue of this new love of his life, Sadik also decides to follow Ahmet. Through an alleyway, he eventually reaches a diagnostic health center. Considering the strange place it is situated, Sadik believes that this is the place where check-up parties happen. So, he rings the doorbell and says that Ahmet has invited him to a check-up party. He gets an entry into this seedy place, where he continues with his task to meet Ahmat. After beating him, the men take him through rooms filled with helpless kids and women, probably being smuggled from the place for their bodies or organs.
Upon meeting, Sadik shows Ahmat a text from a cop named Sevket and threatens him to share what he is up to (Fatima sends this text to Sadik on a number saved under the name of Sevket). Sadik understands Ahmat’s relation to human trafficking, organ trafficking, and other illegal activities. However, he is more concerned with knowing the details of his relationship with Tevfik. As a result, Ahmat reveals that Tevfik was not innocent. In fact, he used to engage in illegal activities after maintaining the front of his innocent salon job during the day. He worked as a procurer along with Cevdet, who drove a black sedan.
Through this information, Sadik understands that Tevfik was not as innocent as his mother claimed him to be. Besides, he also gets Cevdet’s black sedan’s license number from Ahmet. Around this time, a guy sees Sadik from a distance and informs someone about him. The next day, Sadik meets Rezzan, as per Maide’s request. In the past, they both were lawyers. Rezzan got connected with some wrong people at the time, and to save her, Sadik took the fall and went to jail. Despite making this huge sacrifice for her, she decided to divorce him and married a wealthy businessman, Arif.
After years of distance, Rezzan wants Sadik to help her again, but now, in exchange for a huge amount. However, all those years have changed Sadik as a person, and he doesn’t want to pursue her money. So he denies her offer even if she manipulates him by telling him about her pregnancy and saying how she cannot go to jail in such a condition. Instead of getting betrayed by her, he finds comfort in being with Fatma, even if she is much younger than him.
Meanwhile, the man that followed Sadik before (and provided intel about him to someone) shoots Ahmat dead for speaking with him. On the other hand, Sadik learns from Sule that the black sedan he got the license plate for was totaled about 20 days ago. While the driver couldn’t be identified because of the damage, the details revealed that it belonged to Cevdet Koru. Cevdet was a deputy police lieutenant who got discharged because of his involvement in shady activities.
To learn more about Cevdet, Sadik decides to meet his wife, Kadriye. He presents himself as an insurance employee who wants to speak about Cevdet’s life insurance policy. But he only gets to meet his sister-in-law, Bediye. She says that the HR manager from his company drove to their home to share the deed in person and to check some other documents personally. Sadik finds those details dubious and asks for her phone number if he wants to speak further. After he leaves, we learn that Kadriye was home during this time but chose not to meet Sadik herself.
Later, Pinar meets Sadik and offers to give Tevfik’s phone in exchange for money. She plans to extort money from Macit in exchange for keeping his relationship with a teenager a secret from Maide. Macit pays the amount but informs that he has photos of videos of him with Pinar. He threatens to make them public if she betrays him. Then, Pinar gives Tevfik’s phone to Sadik. That’s where he finds Tevfik’s strangely romantic relationship with Sir. He also sees a video where two masked people torture a woman.
The next day, Sadik shows Pinar the videos Macit took of their relationship. That’s when she reveals that Tevfik sold her to Macit, and she was forced to work as a prostitute. So, in exchange for Sadik doing this good deed, Pinar shares the code to open hidden files on Tevfik’s phone. Right after, Sadik calls Macit to threaten him. Macit confesses that he introduced Tevfik to Cevdet. Sadik shows him the strange video of torture, and Macit believes that the masked people are the Kaan twins.
Later, Rezzan visits Sadik at his place and pities the sad state of affairs. He still feels content in living life as per his wishes with Fatma, whom he trusts and adores. The next day, he calls the HR manager, Tashin, to talk about Tevfik and Cevdet. While the man tries to evade answering his queries, Sadik gives an ultimatum of two hours to get back with an update. As a result, he gets to meet the Kaan twins – Kamil and Bilge, in their strangely dark mansion. They justify to him their sadistic idea of ‘pleasure.’ However, they think that he is working for Tevfik. But he insists that he only wants to find Tevfik. In exchange for fulfilling Tevfik’s wish to go to a tropical island, the twins ask him to find Tevfik.
Right after, Tevfik’s mother (Sadik’s actual client) calls him and suddenly takes back her case to find Tevfik. Sadik finds it strange and to learn why she made that sudden decision, he asks Pinar to see her mother’s contact log. One of the recent contacts belonged to Kadriye (Black Sedan owner Cevdet’s wife). Later, he decides to use Fatma’s friend – Meral, who is an ex-actor, to con Tevfik into meeting him. He finally comes face-to-face with Tevfik. Hamza (the guy who followed Sadik before) gets shot by Sadik, who reveals that Tevfik conned him like everyone else. Sadik learns that Tevfik stole fifty thousand euros from Sir’s safe and invoices for their smuggled cars. Hamza tells Sadik to take the money from his car.
Kadriye, in addition to Tevfik, is present at this location and spills the beans on her plan to betray her abusive husband. Tevfik was the mastermind behind all the plans, who first decided to use Kadriye for his advantage and then also Cevdet’s sister-in-law once he sees Kadriye of no use. Tevfik reveals the sadistic nature of the Kaan siblings’ pleasure-seeking activities. He recorded one of their rituals, where they cut open a man’s throat and then later mutilated his body.
Per the siblings’ orders, Cevdet got rid of that body but found a dagger as evidence to use against them (to blackmail them for money). However, Tevfik suddenly wants to have the money just for himself. As a result, he got rid of Cevdet with Kadriye’s help, who had her own motive for killing him (domestic abuse). Since he knew that the twins would not kill their past employee’s wife (Kadriye) that easily, Tevfik used Kadriye to deal with the twins. But Sadik made his fall apart.
10 Days of a Good Man (2023) Movie Ending Explained
After Tevifik’s set of surprising revelations, Sadik takes him to the safe house to meet the Kaan siblings. He gets the money from them as per his deal with these twins. Then right after, he informs Sir about Tevfik’s location. When Sir arrives at this safe house, he returns the car documents and money stolen by Tevfik. Sir battles with the Kaan twins and ends up winning over them. He also applauds Tevfik’s clever handling and agrees to fulfill any of his demands.
Once his case gets solved, Sadik returns to his ex-wife’s case, who has offered money in exchange for keeping her out of prison. He agrees to do it if she pays double what she asked for. But she needs to say what she and her new husband have done that is so bad. He secretively records her confession and uses it as a source of blackmailing her.
So, he retains the tape, the confession, the money, and his freedom. She gets angry at him and what he has become. He notes that he values justice more than loyalty now. So even after spending ten days on his new case and helping people, Sadik keeps doubting why he is called a ‘good man.’
Related Read: Missing Link (2019) Review: A Spectacular Stop Motion Animation
Watch 10 Days of a Good Man (2023) Movie Trailer
10 Days of a Good Man (2023) Movie Links: IMDb Rotten Tomatoes
10 Days of a Good Man (2023) Movie Cast: Nejat Isler, Ata Artman, Ilayda Alisan, Ilayda Akdogan, Nur Fettahoglu
Where to watch 10 Days of a Good Man
