The Kite Runner

Atonement in Afghanistan. If one were to soundbyte Marc Foster’s adaptation of Khalid Hosseini’s acclaimed novel, The Kite Runner, this might suffice. However, this does not do the film justice. It’s a genuine film that tries to and succeeds in lending integrity and sincerity to its representation of an age-old culture, its people and the now-ravaged city of Kabul. Amir (Khalid Abdalla) is a first-generation Afghan American novelist revelling in his new marital bliss and the publication of his first novel, all fine and dandy in the warm Californian sunshine until he receives a phone call from his homeland telling him he must return home.

Foster then skillfully explains why in a flashback to Amir’s childhood. Amir at 12 (Zekeria Ebrahimi) is the son of a wealthy Kabul liberal in pre-Soviet Afghanistan. His life is played out with kites and slingshots in the bazaars, gullys and steppes of the city with his best friend Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada), who is the servant’s son. Their upstairs-downstairs brotherhood continues as Hassan guards Amir with his life and they run kites through the city calling themselves the “Sultans of Kabul.” Then in a moment, Hassan is ravaged by a group of boys and the cowardly Amir does nothing about it. In an effort to relieve himself of his guilt, he sets Hassan up for robbery. Then as the Soviets invade Kabul, Amir and his liberal father escape to Pakistan and then America, leaving everything behind. Flash forward to Amir, now fatherless, returning to Taliban-controlled Afgahnistan in an effort to atone for his betrayal and find redemption. In essence, it’s not unlike Atonement with its portrayal of a destructive childhood mistake becoming the cause for an adult silent suffering and then the search for redemption set against the backdrop of war and family obligation.

Foster’s visceral paintings of what Kabul once was are startlingly beautiful, in total contrast to the grey filth of Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The film doesn’t get political and displays a very simplified representation of the country but its politics is not where the story lies. It’s the human story of Amir, and to a lesser extent Hassan, shaped and moulded by Afghani culture, by circumstance and later by war and exile.

Foster shows all this with unfaltering direction, not once being preachy. The film also has beautiful vignettes of American-Afghani culture – both its richness and displacement. The kites are used as metaphors for the story’s trajectory – a little bit cliche, but visually exciting. The music is not strong and often jars in places and seems to lack anything Afghani about it. The actors and the storytelling are believable (as is the subtitled Pashto/Dari that is used in the film) and they lend much tragedy, integrity, hope and poignancy to this important film adaptation of an important book.

Cast Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub, Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada, Zekiria Ebrahimi, Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada, Homayoun Ershadi Director Marc Foster Runtime 128 mins Opens 17 April

Text Priya Narayanan