2007: The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner (Forster, 2007) 7/10

Since its publication in 2003, Afghan-American author Khalid Hosseini's The Kite Runner has been a critical and commercial favourite of book clubs, due to its topical look at Afghani history and politics. Directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland; Monster's Ball), The Kite Runner is a emotionally inductive affair that rides upon a wave of nostalgia and the poignant remnants of a fractured childhood relationship.

Traversing between 1970's Kabul and contemporary San Francisco, The Kite Runner focuses on Amir (Zekiria Ebrahimi) a reticent and apprehensive boy from an affluent, westernized family. When not writing stories in his room, Amir spends most of his days playing with his friend Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada). Under the curious caste-like cultural circumstances within Afghanistan, Hassan and his family have long acted as household servants for Amir's secularized and widowed intellectual father Baba (Homayoun Ershadi). Thus, while their time spent together includes outings watching classic Hollywood films and flying kites, the pair also must engage in a split relationship that involves Hassan's docile servitude toward Amir.

Despite his moody outbursts, Baba is a loving individual who treats Hassan as though he is his own son; perhaps even viewing the brash and assured boy as a figure more akin to his own masculine image. Yet, tragedy soon strikes as Hassan is viciously attacked by a sexually sadistic teenager. Rather than informing his father of the event, Amir responds in anger towards Hassan: shunning his friend and engaging in a series of manipulative acts that ensure the split of their long-standing friendship.

Within Kabul's vibrant walls, an undercurrent of intolerance and violence begins to ferment with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, resulting in Baba and Amir's flight from Afghanistan to America. It is here that Forster's film shifts gears and what initially became a study of the loss of childhood innocence and friendship, instead emerges as a study of cultural dislocation and a rather vapid tale of personal redemption. Forster's hefty application of binary opposites steadily loosens the cultural and historical complexity of Hosseini's narrative as characters sink into simplistic stereotypes of good and evil.

The chronological elaboration of Amir's character is particular telling. Despite his guilt and ultimate redemption, Forster's film never offers an extensive insight into Amir's psychological consciousness. The culpable nature of his acts- resigning Hassan to his eventual fate- are not provided a greater insight. As the film moves across time and space, it is surprising to note that Amir's contrition is steadily posited away from the central narrative. Subsequently, this eliminates the entangled ramifications within his character as Amir's moments of cowardliness are pushed further into the background, rather than being a central catalyst in the foreground plot.

Consequently, The Kite Runner steadily embosses a syrupy sentimental vibe imbued with layers of nostalgia. Thus, the nascent opportunities for Forster to attempt a Neo-Realist interpretation of childhood give way to eventual images of happy families and undeserved emotional resolution. Through Forster's perspective pre-Soviet invasion Kabul bears the hallmarks of a paradisal community. Yet, such a viewpoint undermines and neglects the real historical ethnic and class divisions within Afghanistan, in addition to the exterior social conflict surrounding the insulated world Forster creates for Amir and Hassan. Disturbingly, the vast majority of the film's characters appear blithe toward the socially and economically restrictive template of their lives.

Even when the film returns to contemporary Afghanistan, Forster's rendition of history is skewed: placing Afghanistan's tragic present as a consequence of Soviet imperial expansionism, rather than a product of a myriad of sources. The ensuing historical gap in Forster's film hurts his transition from past to present in showing Afghanistan's post-Cold War emergence as a "failed state." Furthermore, the film's forays into the action-film genre are a mystifying artistic selection, whilst the attempts at crafting a viewpoint from that of the outsider in America lacks cohesion to the film's opening third.

Yet, despite Forster's attempts at emotional manipulation, the film is an often fulfilling experience in part to due its fine acting from its two young stars, a scintillating supporting role by Shaun Toab as Baba's associate Rahim Khan and an exquisite performance from Iranian actor Homayoun Ershadi as Baba. Additionally, Forster makes ample use of the film's locations- shot in China as a substitute for war-torn Afghanistan- as well as its extensive use of a foreign language to convey the story . In doing so, Forster is able to imbue the picture with a greater sense of realism and native authenticity.

But as with his earlier film Finding Neverland, Forster is unable to relinquish his willful incursions into sentimentality. Rather than allowing the performances of his actors to emotionally connect with the audience, Forster's film supplies unprescribed doses of evocative music alongside David Benioff's melodramatic script to tug at our heart strings, rather than assertively thumping both the audience and the manipulative main character in the gut.

* The Kite Runner is released by Paramount Vantage

Copyright 2008 8½ Cinematheque