The Kite Runner (2007)

"The Kite Runner" is a film adaptation of a 2003 novel of the same name. The movie is chock-full of stunning visuals in its depictions of Kabul both before and after the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. But the subject matter of the film is very grim. In "The Kite Runner", the main protagonist is a Pashtun boy named Amir who flees to America with his courageous father after the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan to prop up the Communist party of the country in 1979. Amir grew up flying kites which was a common practice among the children of Afghanistan at one time. Amir's "kite runner" was a Hazara boy named Hassan.The "Kite Runner" tells a story of redemption while also depicting the atrocious practice of Bacha Bazi. Bacha Bazi is a slang term for a practice that involves child sexual abuse that takes place in many central Asian countries such as Afghanistan. Under the Taliban's rule from 1994-2001, the practice of Bacha Bazi officially carried the death penalty. It remains illegal under Afghan law today, but the law has always been seldom enforced. This is especially the case against powerful offenders. Bacha Bazi is among the worst forms of theft. It is a theft of a person's innocence. One of the most poignant lines of the film says, ""There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband; rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness". Bacha Bazi is a horrendous practice that deserves more attention and condemnation from the international community. Hazaras are an ethnic minority within Afghanistan. Hassan was a member of this minority and worked as Amir's servant. Despite being treated well by Amir and his father, he is tormented by many Pashtuns elsewhere due to stigma. At one point in the film, Hassan is pinned down and raped by the children of prominent Pashtuns in Kabul. Amir "jan", as he is formally called, witnesses this horrific event and doesn't intervene. Instead he attempts to frame Hassan for theft to remove the awkward obstacle of dealing with the event from his life. Decades pass by. Amir Jan escapes Afghanistan and grows up and gets married in sunny California. But the American dream is interrupted when Amir is brought back to Asia by his father's old friend, a humble man named Rahim Khan. Khan informs Amir that Hassan was actually his half-brother. Hassan was eventually murdered by one of his childhood tormenters who had risen to a high rank within the Taliban. Amir's half-nephew, Hassan's young son was taken and forced to become a dancing boy and sexual slave to the high-ranking official within the corrupt Taliban government. The rest of the story is about how Amir rescues his nephew Sohrab from the Taliban. Afghanistan is a tragic place. The country has its own version of strange fruit. One of the most powerful moments in the film happens when the main character reads a letter written by his deceased childhood friend Hassan. As the protagonist reads the letter, a crate of fruit falls as if to represent the lost souls in this desolate land. The first line of the letter reads, Bismillah ir-Rahman ir- Rahim. It loosely translates to "In the name of God, most Gracious, most Compassionate". The letter goes on to say," I've included a picture of me and my son, Sohrab. He's a good boy. Rahim Khan and I taught him how to read and write, so he doesn't grow up stupid like his father. And can he shoot with that slingshot you gave me! But I fear for him, Amir agha. The Afghanistan of our youth is long dead. Kindness is gone from the land, and you cannot escape the killings. Always the killings. I dream that God will guide us to a better day. I dream that my son will grow up to be a good person, a free person, an important person. I dream that flowers will bloom in the streets of Kabul again, and music will play in the samovar houses, and kites will fly in the skies. And I dream that someday you will return to Kabul to revisit the land of our childhood. If you do, you'll find an old faithful friend waiting for you. May God be with you always. Hassan".

I had to read this book for my Honors English class this summer and I absolutely loved it. The characters they seemed as real to me as my family members. When I finished the book the characters seemed to haunt me, in a good way. After I finished the book I considered watching the movie but I was afraid that the directors had ruined it. The night before finals I decided to watch it to refresh my memory. And boy was I right! Although the casting and the filming were good the script had a lot more to give. It seemed as though the writers had chosen bits and pieces out of the book and stuck it together to make a movie. Yes, they added all of the key moments in Amir's life but they only told half of them, there was still a lot more to the moments that needed to be told. I know that with movies it is difficult for the writers and directors to take us inside the characters minds, but it is possible for them to help us understand the characters and their actions. If I had not read the book I don't think that I would have understood this story as much as I do now.

While watching Marc Forster's The Kite Runner another movie came into mind and that movie was Ang Lee's Life of Pi, because of the way that both stories were told. The movie is set in 1970s Afghanistan, which is a double character study of two boys one named Amir (played by Zekeria Ebrahimi) and the other Hassan (played by Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada) who are best friends while Hassan is the son of a servant named Ali (played by Nabi Tanha) living on Amir's house while Amir is feeling blamed for the accidental death of his mother while he was in the process of being born by his father (played by Homayoun Ershadi). Meanwhile several years after that time period and after the invasion conducted by the Russians an adult Amir (played by Khalid Abdalla) is on a mission to go back to his homeland to find and bring back his late friend Hassan's son Sohrab (played by Ali Danish Bakhtyari) and bing him back to his home in California.The reason why I call this movie inspiring is because it teaches you how people can change their ways for good instead of evil, and director Marc Forster proves that with his directorial excellence.

I waited a long time to watch this movie .. because i wanted to finish the book first .. usually movies tend to have less details than the book which makes the story dull and lacks a lot of its essence .. However, The Kite Runner as a movie was filling the gaps i had while reading the book .. The feelings were true .. and the moments relived like my own .. amazing job ..My review on the book "Being from Syria, and a humble witness of the times of peace .. and the start of a war .. i felt related to this book as it was in many chapters telling my own stories .. The pain .. the loss .. and the tragedies were closer to what i had lived through .. I was wondering if i would be a coward like Amir if i were in his shoes when he saw Hassan get raped, or i'll be recklessly brave and fight for my true friend . . When Amir lost his father .. i relieved every moment that i went through when i lost mine .. and i lived every moment i didn't go through because i was far away when it happened .. the pain was real .. like the one that was in the story .. the details .. I needed to cry him out loud ( while i didn't) .. the book did that for me .. Seeing through Hassan's forgiving heart .. seeing how much he suffered for being from unwanted slice of a diverted society .. and being so dam lucky to have a heart that is above all the winds of change .. i understood that one have to forgive himself for being weak .. accepting that life was unfair .. and we make mistakes thinking that we're fighting back .. his death mixed with the type of loyalty only noble souls carry .. was a chant of charm in a dying heart .. "Forgive your self" .. And the ending of the book after a long torture of awaking a forgotten conscious was implacable with two sentences .. "For you a thousand times over" "I ran" "