The Kite Runner

Dec 28 2007 by Evening Chronicle

(12A, 127 mins) Drama. Zekiria Ebrahimi, Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada, Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub, Ali Danesh Bakhtyari, Nabhi Tanha, Homayoun Ershadi, Elham Ehsas. Director: Marc Forster.

MARC Forster’s magnificent adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s bestseller has been making the headlines for all of the wrong reasons.

Shot on location in the western Chinese desert bordering Afghanistan with child non-actors, and predominantly in the Dari language, The Kite Runner includes a shocking act of violence perpetrated against one of the young characters.

After completing the film, the child stars expressed concern they could be targeted by fellow Afghans offended by the provocative scene.

The youngsters and their families have subsequently been moved to the United Arab Emirates as a precaution.

Director Forster handles the scene concerned with sensitivity and restraint.

Although pivotal to the narrative, the assault is but a small part of a haunting and deeply moving tale of redemption, which casts a heady spell as it travels back and forth in time, between the streets of Kabul and San Francisco Bay.

Amir (Ebrahimi) and servant boy Hassan (Mahmoodzada) are best friends in pre-civil war Afghanistan, oblivious to the power struggle that is about to engulf their country.

While Hassan’s father Ali (Tanha) dutifully tends to the needs of Amir’s father Baba (Ershadi), the boys spend almost every hour of free time together.

Amir struggles to connect with his father, who tells business partner Rahim Khan (Toub) that he fears his son is too soft.

A fearful act of betrayal during a kite-fighting contest taints the lads’ innocence and destroys their friendship for ever, propelling Amir and Hassan on divergent paths.

Twenty years later, Amir (Abdalla) receives a telephone call from his homeland, now under the iron-fisted rule of the Taliban, which re-opens old wounds.

Despite protestations from his wife Soraya (Leoni), Amir hopes to assuage his guilt by venturing back to war-torn Kabul to rescue Hassan’s son Sohrab (Bakhtyari) from an orphanage. However, every selfless act of courage comes at a price.

The Kite Runner is a beautiful and stirring distillation of Hosseini’s book.

Purists may gnash their teeth at some of the changes but cinema is a very different medium, and screenwriter David Benioff elegantly navigates the complex chronology and time-shifts of the source material.

He crafts a far more simplistic narrative but the script still packs an emotional punch.

Ebrahimi and Mahmoodzada share a sparkling rapport and are naturals in front of the camera, while Abdalla brings an aching sadness to his part.

Alberto Iglesias’s evocative and mournful orchestral score plucks at the heartstrings, driving the film to its life-affirming resolution.

SWEARING; SEX; VIOLENCE