The Kite Runner (film)

The Kite Runner
An American poster for the film
Directed by	Marc Forster
Written by	Khaled Hosseini (novel) David Benioff (screenplay)
Produced by	William Horberg Walter Parkes Rebecca Yeldham E. Bennett Walsh Laurie Macdonald
Starring	Khalid Abdalla Zekeria Ebrahimi Homayoun Ershadi Ahmad Mahmidzada
Cinematography	Roberto Schaefer
Edited by	Matt Chesse
Music by	Alberto Iglesias
Distributed by	DreamWorks Paramount Vantage
Release date	14 December 2007 (limited)
Running time	128 min.
Country	USA
Language	Afghan / English
Budget	$20 million

The Kite Runner (Template:PerB - Kāğazparān Bāz) is a 2007 Academy Award-nominated film directed by Marc Forster based on the novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini.

Though most of the film is set in Afghanistan, these parts were mostly shot in Kashgar, China, due to the dangers of filming in Afghanistan at the time. Much of the film's dialogue is in Dari Persian (with English subtitles) and English. The child actors are native speakers, but several adult actors had to learn Dari. Filming wrapped up on December 21, 2006, and the movie was expected to be released on November 2, 2007. However, after concern for the safety of the young actors in the film, its release date was pushed back six weeks to December 14, 2007. The Kite Runner was released on both DVD and HD DVD on March 25, 2008.

The plot of the movie follows that of the novel. It tells the story of Amir, a well-to-do boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his childhood friend Hassan, the son of his father's Hazara servant. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.

Plot

Characters

• Amir — begins as a well-to-do boy living in Kabul in monarchical Afghanistan and later migrates with his father to Fremont, California following the Russian invasion. He witnesses the rape of his loyal friend and servant Hassan. Embarrassed by his own cowardice at not aiding Hassan, Amir begins to treat Hassan poorly.
• Hassan — loyal friend and servant of Amir. Hassan is first thought to be the son of Ali and Sanaubar; later in the story, Hassan was revealed to be the illegitimate son of Baba and Sanaubar, and thus Amir's brother. Hassan died without ever knowing about this fact.
• Assef — an older teenager from Amir's neighborhood in Kabul; together with two friends he bullies Amir and Hassan and rapes Hassan. Many years later, he becomes a Taliban official, who takes Sohrab in his home to be his dance boy. Sohrab severely damages one of Assef's eyes during Assef's fight with Amir.
• Baba — Amir's father. Baba is a bit disappointed in his son Amir, who he wishes to be as much as a man as he is (but his son only reads books and lets others fight off bullies for him). After leaving Afghanistan for America, he ages quickly and dies young. He lives long enough, though, to see his son Amir marry Soraya. Many people attend his funeral.
• Ali — Baba's longtime servant. He is thought initially to be the father of Hassan.
• Rahim Khan — Baba's business partner and best friend in Afghanistan, later he was the one who tells Amir about Hassan's actual father. Amir liked him as a child, and Rahim Khan is also the one who invited Amir back to Afghanistan to pick up Sohrab. When Amir returns to his house, Rahim Khan had left.
• Soraya — an Afghan woman living in Fremont marries Amir. Before marrying Amir, she ran away with an Afghan boyfriend in Virginia, which according to Afghan tradition made her unsuitable for marriage, but Amir loved and married her anyway.
• Sohrab — son of Hassan, like his father good at using a slingshot. His parents are killed by the Taliban, he goes to an orphanage, and is later taken with him by Assef to become a dance boy; Rahim Khan contacts Amir later in life in an attempt to get him to come back to Afghanistan to take Sohrab out of the country.
• Farid — driver who is initially abrasive toward Amir but later befriends him. Farid is Amir's means of transport, information, and knowledge of current Afghanistan when he returns.

Story

In Kabul, before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, well-to-do teenage boy Amir and his very loyal Hazara servant Hassan (the son of his father's servant Ali) are best friends. Amir goes to school, but Hassan does not; as a result he cannot read. Amir likes literature and reads stories to Hassan. His father Baba (Persian for father) thinks he is not tough enough, Amir lets Hassan defend him when he is bullied. Amir worries that Baba does not like him because Amir's mother died giving birth to him.

Amir also writes a story himself. Amir’s father is not very interested, but his friend Rahim Khan reads it and encourages him.

One day Hassan and Amir come across Assef, a bully with rancor towards Hazaras, and his two friends. He prepares to fight Amir and Hassan, but Hassan threatens him with his slingshot. They back off but Assef warns them that he will take revenge.

Amir and Hassan like kite fighting. It is a popular sport in Kabul, in which the lines are coated with a mixture of finely crushed glass and glue, for cutting the line of a competitor. The rule is that whoever catches a kite of which the line is cut can keep it. Therefore children run for them. Hassan is the "kite runner" for Amir. He seems to have a gift of knowing where they will land. Amir wins a tournament. Hassan fetches the kite Amir has cut, but runs into Assef and his two henchmen. Assef demands the kite, but Hassan refuses to give it up. Because of that Assef beats him up. The film briefly shows the undoing of Assef's pants buckle and Hassan's pants being tugged down, suggesting that a sexual assault follows. While looking for Hassan, Amir approaches this scene, and hiding, watches the assault. He neither defends Hassan, nor calls for help. Amir and Hassan never tell anyone what happened, and do not talk about it among themselves. When Amir comes home he is finally praised by Baba for winning the tournament, but Amir realizes that the opposite would have been the case if Baba had known what had happened.

Amir and Hassan both become emotionally downcast. Amir feels guilty of being a coward, realizing that Hassan was brave; if Baba knew what happened he might love Hassan more than him. Amir decides it would be best if Hassan would leave. He suggests to Baba to hire other servants but Baba angrily refuses. Amir frames Hassan as a thief, and Hassan falsely confesses. Baba forgives him, despite the fact that, as he explained earlier, he believes that "there is no act more wretched than stealing". Ali and Hassan decide to leave, in spite of Baba begging and ordering them to stay.

A short while later, the Soviets invade Afghanistan; since Baba is well-known as an anti-communist, Amir and Baba flee; Rahim Khan will watch over the house. On the way a female refugee is about to be raped by a Soviet soldier; Baba defends her, in spite of Amir's justified fear that Baba will be killed. The soldier's superior prevents harm to the woman and to Baba. The refugees hide in the tank of a fuel truck on the road to Peshawar, Pakistan. After waiting six months, Baba and Amir were granted visas from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and were allowed to relocate to the United States.

They start living in Fremont, California. After having lived in luxury in an expensive mansion in Afghanistan, they now settle in a humble apartment. Baba begins work at a gas station, and Amir goes to college. Every Sunday, Baba and Amir make extra money selling used goods at a flea market in San Jose. There, Amir meets Soraya Taheri and her family; Soraya is interested in Amir's writing skills, although her father, a former Afghan authority called General Taheri, has contempt of them. Baba gets very ill but is still capable of doing Amir a big favor: he asks the general permission for Amir to marry her. He agrees and the two marry. Shortly thereafter Baba dies. Amir and Soraya learn that they cannot have children. Amir's first novel is published; Amir has dedicated it to Rahim Khan, who (as opposed to Baba) encouraged him as beginning writer.

Amir receives a phone call from Rahim Khan (this is partly already shown at the start of the film, so the rest of what was shown until here was a long flashback), telling him to come to Pakistan, because "there is a way to be good again". (Perhaps he knows that in the past Amir framed Hassan as a thief, or he refers to not keeping in touch with Hassan.) Amir agrees and flies to Pakistan to meet him. Rahim Khan tells Amir that he had hired Hassan as caretaker of Baba's house, and that the Taliban ordered him to give it up and leave, but that he refused, and was killed. His wife desperately attacked them and was killed too. Hassan was actually Amir's half-brother, being an illegitimate son of Baba. Amir is angry for having been deceived all his life. Rahim Khan gives Amir a draft of a letter that Hassan was going to send to Amir: he is sad about what happened to the country and hopes Amir can visit him one day.

The reason that Rahim Khan has called Amir to Pakistan is to go to Kabul where Hassan's son, Sohrab, is believed to live in an orphanage, and to take him out of Afghanistan to give him better living conditions. First Amir is reluctant to go and offers money to have Sohrab brought out of the country by somebody else, but Rahim Khan thinks he should do it himself.

Amir agrees; he returns to Taliban-controlled Kabul with Farid as a guide and driver. Reluctantly Amir follows Farid's instruction to glue on a fake beard, as a beard is compulsory under Taliban rule. When Amir watches a passing Taliban patrol, Fahrid urges him never to stare at them.

Zaman, the director of the orphanage where Sohrab is supposed to be, tells them that a Taliban official comes once every two months to take a child (usually a girl, sometimes a boy) and bring some money very needed to feed the orphans. Sohrab was one of them. Amir reproaches him for allowing that, but the man says that if he refuses they take ten children, and besides, he needs the money for the remaining children. Reluctantly Amir goes with Farid to a football match (with bearded players) where in the break an adulterous woman is stoned to death, because there he can meet the man who took Sohrab. Amir sets an appointment with this man and meets him at his home. There he finds out that the Taliban official is Assef. Violating the ban on music and dancing, music is played, and Sohrab is introduced to Amir dancing to this music; apparently Assef made him his dance boy. Assef orders his guards to leave the room. Amir demands the boy, to take him with him. Assef agrees, but as the price Amir has to pay for the boy, Assef attacks Amir brutally. However, Sohrab has the slingshot with him which he got from his father, who got it as a birthday present from Amir long ago. Amir is saved when Sohrab uses it and shoots a brass ball from the base of a turned-over table into one of Assef's eyes. Amir and Sohrab manage to escape the house, and leave with Farid, who waited in the car, while under fire from the guards. Without further complications (though paying a bribe at the border) they leave the country.

Amir returns with the boy to the house of Rahim Khan, but he has died. The traumatized boy runs away from the hotel, but to Amir's relief he returns. He says he feels dirty because of what Assef daily did to him.

Amir takes him home. He shows him the tricks of kite flying. Slowly Sohrab begins to interact with Amir, who enthusiastically runs the kite, saying to Sohrab the phrase Hassan said to Amir in the past: "For you, a thousand times over."

Differences to the book

• In the book, Amir as first-person narrator gives more insight in his feelings and motives than the film provides.
• The film has one long flashback, whereas the book jumps forward and backward in time more often.
• In the book, Hassan has a cleft palate. Baba pays to have it repaired as a gift to Hassan. This is not depicted in the movie.
• The book is more explicit about Hassan's rape.
• In the film, with the same actor playing Amir through the flight to Pakistan, these events seem to cover a short time, while in the book his depicted 13th birthday is in the summer of 1976, while the flight is in March 1981 (at an age of 17, apparently the mentioned age of 18 is rounded).
• In the book Assef instructs his guards to let Amir go if he survives the fight with him. In the film Amir escapes with Sohrab through a window and they leave with Farid while under fire from the guards.
• The film does not show how Amir obtains a publishing agent and the difficulties he goes through to get his book produced.
• The film leaves out Amir and Soraya's initial marital problems and is very brief about their failure to conceive a child, subsequently instigating their choice to adopt.
• The film does not deal with administrative difficulties of adopting Sohrab.
• Sohrab attempts to commit suicide in the book, but not in the film. The suicide attempt is sparked by Amir unthinkingly telling Sohrab he may have to stay in an orphanage in Pakistan for a brief while, while Amir sorts out the adoption red tape (Amir promises Sohrab that he will never have to go back to an orphanage again prior to the suicide attempt).

Ban

The Afghan government has banned the film from movie theaters and DVD shops because of the rape scene and the ethnic tensions that the film highlights.

Criticism

Though the child actors enjoyed making the film, they and their families have expressed worries about their situation now that the film is done. Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada (Hassan as a child) said regarding one scene "I want to continue making films and be an actor but the rape scene upset me because my friends will watch it and I won't be able to go outside any more. They will think I was raped." The scene has been depicted in a less harrowing manner than originally planned: there is no nudity in it, not even underpants are exposed; an attack is shown, and a sexual aspect is suggested only very briefly at the end of the scene, by a trousers buckle being undone, trousers being tugged slightly down, and unzipping a fly. Even for that a body double was used.

Additionally, Zekeria Ebrahimi (Amir as a child) has said "We want to study in the United States. It's a modern country and more safe than here in Kabul. If I became rich here I would be worried about security. It's dangerous to have money because of the kidnapping."

Zekeria Ebrahimi and Ahmad Mahmidzada were paid $17,500 each, and Ali Dinesh $13,700; some argue that they were underpaid.

A website was created devoted to protecting the welfare of the boys involved in the film.

Paramount relocated the three main boy actors playing Amir, Hassan, and Sohrab, and one with a minor role playing Omar, each accompanied by a relative, to the United Arab Emirates. Reportedly it accepts responsibility for the boys' living expenses until they reach adulthood, a cost some estimated at up to 500,000 dollars.

Cast

• Khalid Abdalla - Amir as adult
• Zekeria Ebrahimi - Amir as a child
• Ali Dinesh - Sohrab
• Homayoun Ershadi - Baba
• Atossa Leoni - Soraya
• Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada - Hassan as a child
• Nasser Memarzia - Zaman
• Shaun Toub - Rahim Khan
• Saïd Taghmaoui - Farid, the driver/guide
• Henri Ramsey - family member (graduation)
• Qadir Farookh - General Taheri
• Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada - Omar (best competing kite flyer)

The three boys were aged 11 and 12 at the time of the filming.

Critical reception

The film received mixed to excellent reviews from critics. As of February 18, 2008, on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 67% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 154 reviews. On Metacritic, the film had an average score of 61 out of 100, based on 34 reviews.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times named it the 5th best film of 2007.

Awards and nominations

Nominations

• 65th Golden Globe Awards
  • Best Foreign Language Film
  • Best Original Score - Motion Picture (Alberto Iglesias)
• 80th Academy Awards
  • Best Original Score (Alberto Iglesias)

Trivia

When Amir receives his degree from community college, the names of the graduates are names of crew members from San Francisco. Despite the fact that the official release date was pushed back, the movie was released to winners of the online Kite Runner Movie contest. Winners of this contest were able to watch a pre-screening of the movie, which took place in November 2007. In the same month, several hundred students from Independence High School in San Jose, where Khaled Hosseini graduated from, were given the privilege to watch a pre-screening as well.

The man Amir excuses himself from at the end of the film when he sees the man selling kites is Khaled Hosseini, the writer of novel the film is based on.

See also

Kite Runner flies into controversy

External links

• Official site
• The Kite Runner at IMDb
• The Kite Runner at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Kite Runner at Metacritic
• The Kite Runner at Box Office Mojo
• The Kite Runner at AllMovie
• The Kite Runner at Yahoo! Movies
• Movie Preview: The Kite Runner
• eFilmCritic.com interview with "The Kite Runner" star 'Homayoun Ershadi'.
• Discussion of Kite Runner adaptation
• The Kite Runner soundtrack review at Tracksounds