The Kite Runner-- Tale of Lifelong Bond and Redemption

The Kite Runner is an emotionally-charged tale of love, friendship, and redemption that spans nearly two decades. Based on Khaleid Hosseini’s best-selling and award-winning novel, the story involves two boys who grow up together in Afghanistan in the early 1980s, just before the country is occupied by the former Soviet Union. Amir, the older boy, is the meek son of an aristocratic member of the Pashtun community. Hassan, Amir’s best friend, is a younger, more assured son of a servant of Hazaran ethnicity, which relegates him and his family to lower-class status in Afghan society. Amir, who feels his father’s disappointment in him, spends his time writing and reading stories to a wide-eyed Hassan, who looks up to him.

The early scenes between the boys are in subtitles, and they are among the most warm-hearted scenes that viewers will see in theaters this year. The authenticity in these scenes must be attributed to the earnest performances of Zekeria Ebrahimi and Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, the young actors who portray Amir and Hassan as children. As a young Hassan Mahmidzada is particularly memorable for his stunning ability to convey emotions ranging from exuberance and exhilaration to pain and sadness.

Kite-flying is one of the boys’ favorite activities. The activity is so popular in Afghanistan that thousands watch from balconies and fill the streets to watch as children and their families hoist kites into the sky and watch them glide into the air. Amir and Hassan team up in a local kite-flying contest that challenges individuals to fly kites and to cut the strings of the opposing kites in mid-air before their strings are cut. The team with the last kite flying wins the contest and is instantly the recipient of near city-wide adulation.

The kite-flying scenes in the film are exquisitely shot and are well-staged. The images of the flying kites effectively symbolize freedom and the hope-filled possibilities for people who live in a culture that is seemingly oppressive and fraught with danger and conflict.

The dynamics of the relationship between Amir and Hassan dramatically change after the kite-flying contest when Hassan is raped by an upper class Pashtun boy. Amir is horrified as he watches the assault in silence. He cannot bring himself to intervene to save his friend from the assault and humiliation, confirming his father’s belief that he lacked the courage that his younger friend possesses. Amir’s inability to help his friend during such a traumatic event haunts him forever.

Political unrest and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan prompt Amir and his father to flee their home and to emigrate to the United States. Amir and his father settle in California, where he eventually falls in love and marries a young woman. The middle section of the film, involving Amir and his father’s settlement in the United States, is the least compelling in the film. The film misses an opportunity to show the father and son struggling to adapt to life in the States, which surely would have strengthened this section of the story. Although there is some light humor in the scenes involving Amir's early encounters with his future wife, their relationship is truncated in the film.

The dramatic tension in the film returns when Amir receives a telephone call from his father’s longtime confidante in Afghanistan, whom he hasn't seen since he and his father fled the country. The man urges Amir to return to his homeland, and his decision is difficult. He is a published author with a wife and life in the United States. But his father’s friend makes a startling admission that sets Amir on a dangerous mission that pits him face to face with his past and presents him with one last opportunity to restore honor to his family and to the friend he shamefully neglected almost twenty years ago.

The rape scene in the film has been the subject of much controversy. Paramount Vantage received some criticism for casting Afghan actors in the roles of the boys, in addition to their decision to include the rape in the film adaptation of the story, thus potentially endangering the young actors. Reportedly, the studio delayed the debut of the movie for six weeks out of concern that the young actors involved in the rape scene would not be allowed to return to their homes in Afghanistan. Hosseini and the film’s director, Marc Forster, have both gone on record to defend their decision to include the rape scene in the final cut of the film. In their defense, the scene is as tastefully executed as it possibly could be, and the studio, writer, and director made the correct decisions in leaving the pivotal scene in tact.

Accomplished screenwriter David Benioff and two-time Oscar nominee Marc Forster have teamed together to craft The Kite Runner as a poignant, understated, and bravely told story that maintains the integrity of its original source material. The two thirty-something-year-old creators have teamed together as a writer and director previously in Stay, and their collaboration here is an improvement over that smaller film. Although Forster and Benioff haven’t elevated the material in their film adaptation of Hosseini’s novel, they have created a film that translates the story’s themes of redemption, freedom, hope, love, and demonstrates the powerful bonds that are formed by lifelong relationships. The Afghanistan portions of The Kite Runner were filmed in Xinjang, Kashgar, Tashkuga, and the Pamir Mountains, and the images are striking. The characters in The Kite Runner are bound and limited by geography, culture, tradition, the past, and the political future, yet their journeys of self-discovery remind us of the age-old truth that “love has no boundaries.”

Grade: B+