Author: Milen Milanov
[Beware of minor spoilers]
The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini published in 2003 that was adapted to a motion picture by Marc Forster in 2007. The book reveals the story of Amir, a young Afghan boy who migrates to the States with his father in the early 80’s and grows up to become a writer. After a truth about his family is unveiled to him nearly 20 years after moving to the US he decides to travel back to Afghanistan in order to face ghost from the past and ultimately get the sense of redemption in an attempt to save a life.
The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini published in 2003 that was adapted to a motion picture by Marc Forster in 2007. The book reveals the story of Amir, a young Afghan boy who migrates to the States with his father in the early 80’s and grows up to become a writer. After a truth about his family is unveiled to him nearly 20 years after moving to the US he decides to travel back to Afghanistan in order to face ghost from the past and ultimately get the sense of redemption in an attempt to save a life.
Spanning across a period of roughly thirty years, the novel covers a
significant chunk of Afghanistan’s history – from the fall of the country’s
monarchy, through the Soviet invasion, the exodus of refugees to Pakistan and
to the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime. Although a work of
fiction, all of these events are very well depicted giving the reader a vivid
idea of the difficult emotional state people affected by them were put in. One
of the essential themes in the book is therefore finding one’s identity.
Another issue that is present in the novel that supports this claim is
the one of ethnicity. Even in the 70’s when Afghanistan seems to be a country
of prosperity, we hear more about an emerging tension between two ethnicities
in particular – the Pashtuns (considered to be the privileged majority) and the
(considered to be socially inferior) Hazara. The reason why this is relevant to
the story is because Amir and his father are Pashtuns and Amir’s childhood best
friend (and also servant) is a Hazara boy by the name of Hassan. Among other
things, the book very clearly shows in the face of Hassan how Hazara people
were treated by the majority of society. A series of unfortunate events
(culminating with the Soviet invasion) will separate the two boys with very
little hope that they will ever see each other again.
Despite the fact that as in every other movie adaptation not absolutely
everything can be extracted from the book it’s based upon, writer David Benioff
and director Marc Forster do a very decent job in incorporating very essential
key elements from the novel into the film. Everything from the cinematography
to the editing shows that the people responsible for making the picture had
invested enough time to match the feel you get from it with the feel you get
from the book itself. One specific feat that the film possesses is the very
successful contrast in the representation of Afghanistan as a monarchy and
decades later as a Taliban controlled country with the people left to the mercy
of soldiers and the very strong presence and regular practice of Sharia. Amir
no longer recognizes this place. Having travelled to Afghanistan to find a
little boy and take him back to the States, he finds nothing of the home he
knew to motivate him to stay even a second longer than he needs to.
The Kite Runner is an engaging work
of fiction that is simultaneously very educational. Both the novel and the film
have their strong moments, both heartwarming and intense. It is easily a
masterpiece that would keep both readers and viewers on their toes and
ultimately leave them satisfied with the closure it provides. To add to the
legitimacy of the movie, I might also say that film enthusiasts will be happy
to know that Hosseini himself has a brief cameo in the film.
Score (for both the book and the film): 4.5/5
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