The story begins with young boys flying kites in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1978. Life is fairly peaceful; this is before the Russian invasion, the Taliban and the war that would turn the country into anarchy. The Kite Runner focuses on the friendship between a young boy named Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) and Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada), son of the family’s servant, Ali (Nabi Tanha). The two boys are virtually inseparable and act like brothers. Though Hassan is the smaller of the two boys, he goes out of his way to protect Amir whenever he has to. Hassan regular protects Amir from a town bully, Assef (Elham Ehsas) who is jealous of Amir’s kite and Hassan’s skills as a kite runner. He is able to predict when a kite will return to earth and be there, ready to retrieve it. Hassan is also an easy target for derision because of his status as the son of a servant.
Amir’s father Baba is a well-to-do Afghani who has no use for the mullahs. He is an intellectual and a secularist, who drives a Mustang and spends his time taking the boys to American movies. While Baba’s best friend Rahim Khan (Shaun Toub) wholeheartedly supports Amir’s love of literature and writing, Baba remains deeply concerned about his sons’ inability to fend for himself. Even though Hassan may be hindering his sons’ emotional growth Baba continues to provide for the boy and his father as though they were his own family.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Amir becomes a kite fighting champion along with Hassan. Once the competition is decided, Hassan uses his kite running skills to track down the kite the two defeated to win the championship. When he recovers the kite, the bully Assef reappears and changes the boys’ lives forever. When Hassan refuses to surrender the kite to the bully, Assef and his gang track down Hassan, and brutally rape him. Though Amir arrives in time to see the attack taking place, he does nothing to stop it. From then on, Amir is no longer able to face his friend. Whether from guilt or shame, both boys can no longer communicate with each other. Eventually, Amir plants evidence to make Hassan seem like a thief. Hassan, despite his innocence, confesses. Though Baba forgives him, Ali insists they must leave Baba’s employment immediately, despite forty years of loyal service.
The film opens with the modern day Amir in Los Angeles (circa 2000), opening a box full of copies of his new novel. He receives a telephone call from his father’s friend Rahim Khan: “You should come home. There is a way to be good again.” The tagline of The Kite Runner, “there is a way to be good again,” is critical to the entire story; what follows after the phone call is as chain of events that leads to Amir trying to heal the wounds of the past.
It’s hard to call The Kite Runner, with its message of atonement, an enjoyable film. It tackles some very tough issues on a very personal level. I found it difficult to excuse Amir’s betrayal of Hassan so many years earlier. Given the current state of Afghanistan, The Kite Runner provides an education to the unfamiliar about the country before the Russian invasion and the rise of the Taliban. The film stands as a reminder of the beauty of the now war-torn nation.
Working from Khaled Hosseini’s novel, screenwriter David Benioff and director Marc Forster have done a remarkable job crafting a story not in their native tongue. Though much of The Kite Runner is in English, many of the subtitled scenes are in Dari, an Afghan dialect of Farsi, or Persian. Forster required a translator to work with several actors who couldn’t speak English. The acting in The Kite Runner is superb. The actors playing the young Amir and Hassan are incredibly talented. Both of them give emotionally powerful performances that lend to the gravity of the story being told.
The Kite Runner is a tragic and powerful film about friendship, culture, and atonement. This is a beautifully crafted film that deserves to be seen. You will have to form your own opinions about the actions of Amir as a young boy.
The Kite Runner is brought to DVD with a anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen transfer. The colors are wonderful. The film is presented in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround and contains soundtracks for both French and Spanish. Subtitles are provided for all three films.
The Kite Runner DVD has a few notable extras: “A Commentary with Marc Foster, Khaled Hosseini and David Benioff” in which the group talks about how they adopted the novel for the screen and Hosseini gives some additional information on Afghanistan. In the featurette “Words from the Kite Runner” (14:24) the Benioff and Forster discuss their what interested them in the project and Hosseini discusses how he became a writer after originally studying to be a doctor. “Images from The Kite Runner” (24:38) focuses more on the technical aspects of the making of the film. The Kite Runner also includes a PSA from author Khaled Hosseini giving a brief introduction to the film and asking for support of Afghanistan through a charitable organization. The theatrical trailer is also included.
