The Kite Runner is proof that A-list stars and a big budget can’t compete with good old-fashioned storytelling.
Working from Khaled Hosseini’s popular novel and employing a cast of virtual unknowns, director Marc Forster has created a vibrant and emotional film about friends, family, honour, and redemption.
Afghan-born Amir (Khalid Abdalla) is a successful writer living in America with a loving wife – he’s celebrating the publication of his latest novel when an old acquaintance calls him from his native country asking him to return, and intoning, “There is a way to be good again.”
Skip back 20 years to Kabul, 1978, when Amir was a boy. He and his best friend Hassan spend their days seeing movies, telling stories, and, naturally, flying kites. They engage in duels with the other boys, each trying to cut the other’s kite string, and when they do and the kites fall, Hassan, the best kite runner in the city, runs them down. He has a near-sixth sense of where and when they’ll land.
If there’s one thing that gets in the way of their friendship, it’s the fact that Amir’s father Baba (Homayoun Ershadi) seems to favour the courageous, devoted Hassan over his soft-spoken, introverted son. The differences between them are never more apparent than in the film’s pivotal scene, and their actions therein resonate throughout their lives.
This is the first film for Zekeria Ebrahimi, who plays young Amir, and Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, who plays young Hassan, and both offer genuine, heartfelt performances. Mahmidzada is extraordinary as Hassan, who as a servant is the less educated of the two and is utterly loyal even when Amir is cruel to him. Their friendship is the heart of the film and offers its most touching and compelling scenes, among them a kite flying tournament. Forster dazzles with the kite flying sequences, following the colourful toys from the air as they soar into the sky and then dive and bob back down to earth.
Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada in a scene from The Kite Runner
When the film skips back to the adult Amir, and his life in America, its pace slackens somewhat and some of the emotional impact is lost. But his road to redemption is an important one, involving a perilous return to a Taliban-run Afghanistan, and brings the story full circle. Ershadi, who appears in both halves as the aging Baba, is a formidable onscreen presence, conveying dignity and honour even when his character is in the wrong.
The Kite Runner is a rare example of a film that made me rush out afterward to buy the book. It’s an absorbing, deeply felt story with characters you can’t help but care about, and if, as is often the case, it one-ups the film, I can’t wait to crack it.
Posted by Cate Jones
Agree? Disagree? Email Cate at criticizecate@gmail.com
The Kite Runner (**** out of 5)
Rated: PG-13 (18A in Canada)
Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Homayoun Ershadi
Directed by: Marc Forster
Written by: David Benioff, based on novel by Khaled Hosseini
Related links: Official site, IMDB page, Apple trailer
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