This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 6:25 pm and is filed under Drama, Foreign Language, K, Movie Reviews, NEW ON VIDEO. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Marc Forster
Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Zekeria Ebrahimi, Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, Homayoun Marshadi, Shaun Toub
German director, Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Monster’s Ball) has done an outstanding job turning David Benioff’s screen treatment of Khalad Hosseini’s best-selling novel into one of the pre-eminent films of 2007. The story is strong, and though it does get intermittently slow, it is still engaging and moving, throughout. The acting is nothing short of flawless and enhances the film, immeasurably. The direction is stellar, particularly in the creation of settings from Kabul in the late 70s, and then the stark contrast two decades later. Subtitles are used for much of the dialog, but the added viewer effort is worth it.
The story here is that of Amir, and is split into a period when he is a child (played by Zekeria Ebrahimi) in Afghanistan just before the Soviet invasion, which forces his father (Homayoun Marshadi) to take him and leave the country. Left behind is their servant, Rahim (Shaun Toob) and his son, Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada) who was Amir’s closest friend, until the shame and guilt of an unfortunate event came between them. Amir and his father end up in America, where an adult Amir (Khalid Abdalla), has put Afghanistan behind him, taken a wife and written a novel, when his past suddenly comes rushing back to him with one phone call.
The Kite Runner is an excellent drama about human relations and how they are impacted by events of the world around them. For those who are comfortable with subtitled films, this is a must see, with the same kind of appeal, and greater impact than Namesake from 2006. For those of you, who never watch subtitled motion pictures, why not?
