Marc Forester, director of “Finding Neverland”, is the one
that brought this year to the big screen Khaled Hosseini's 2003 best-seller “The
Kite Runner,” making, what most of critics are saying, an emotional tale about
friendship, mistakes and redeeming love.
Set in Afghanistan,
the plot evolves around two main characters, in Kabul, before and after the Soviet invasion.
The two main characters are two boys, Amir, 11, the son of a
businessman, and Hassan, 13, the servant’s child.
The movie opens with a brief sequence in modern-day California; afterwards it shifts in time, to the 1970s,
in Kabul where
Amir lives with his father Baba in a beautiful home in the outskirts of the
city.
His best friend is Hassan, the servant’s son and is from the
Hazari tribe, which is a stigmatized tribe. The two are always bullied by the
children from the Pashtun sect, which Amir belongs to.
The two boys spend time together flying kites and taking
part in the Kabul’s
kite tournaments growing, apparently, a strong friendship that will be put to
the test. Hassan even says to Amir at one point that “I'd rather eat dirt than
lie to you,” expressing his devotion towards his friend.
Although the two boys are linked by a special friendship,
they never drop their roles of master and servant.
After one of those days, of enjoying a kite tournament, Hassan
is raped by a thug. The scene is witnessed by Amir, who watches without a sound
and then accuses Hassan of thievery. His inaction and the shame that came out
of it will haunt Amir for the rest of his life.
The third part of the movie shifts again to the present day,
20 years later, when Amir returns to Afghanistan trying to face the past that
still hunts him and to take a chance to set things right.
Marc Forster had a big challenge ahead of him when he had to
bring to the screen the story of lost of innocence. The challenge was to find
to right actors to fit the characters and bring them to life.
Zekeria Ebrahimi, playing Amir, and Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada,
who interprets Hassan, succeeded in bringing to life the characters of the
master and the devoted servant, just as Ann Hornaday writing for Washington
Post said.
In the events that happen in the present day, Amir is played
by Khalid Abdalla, who is successful in introducing with warmth an unlikable
character.
John Hartl, writing for the Seattle Times says regarding the
play of Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada, that he has a pure conviction, close to naiveté,
that he almost doesn’t see the patronizing behavior of his friend.
The two child actors are from Kabul,
but they’ve been moved to the United
Arab Emirates fearing that rape scene could
trigger reprisals.
Although the movie shows a lot of pain and loss, “The Kite
Runner” is found by Hornaday critic in Seattle Times as an exhilarating movie, redemptive
humanity, transmitting a sense of hope.
The movie was shot in North America, for the shots that
represent California and China, around Kashgar in
Western Xinjiang province which stands for Afghanistan.
The film is acted in English, but also many scenes are in
Dari, which is an Afghan dialect of Farsi, or Persian.
Hosseini applauded Forster’s choice of making the movie
mostly in Dari language.
He said: "This would have been a completely different
movie if you have these characters speaking in English. I think part of the
reason this film is going to connect with people is that you see these
characters speaking their indigenous language and it really has the ability to
transport you to that world of 1970s Afghanistan ...and you believe it."
Genre Type: Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Zekeria Ebrahimi, Ahmad Khan
Mahmidzada, Shaun Toub
Director: Marc Forster
Release date: December 14, 2007
