Foreign with subtitles, this is a good little movie about culture, loyalty and friendship shared by two inseparable boys growing up in Afghanistan.Amir Richjan (Khalid Abdalla) lives with his wealthy dad Baba (Homayoun Ershadi) in Afghanistan. His mother died giving birth and Amir feels his dad resents him. Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada) and his father work for Amir as their servants. The two boys become best friends and spend all of their time together. Their favorite past time is watching American movies, like the Magnificent 7, where the boys can recite the lines.
Amir is well educated and spends time reading stories to Hassan, some that he's written himself. He also writes their names in a local tree, "Amir & Hassan - The Sultans of Kabul." One day when the children are returning from the movies, three older boys hassle them and tell Hassan he is nothing, a Hazara, a desert rat who has infected the land of the Pashtuns. Hassen stands them off with a slingshot and a rock.
The morning of Hassan's birthday, Baba takes the boys for a ride in his new Mustang. He drives them to the local shop and allows Hassan to pick out any kite in the store. This will be the kite that the boys enter in the kite-fighting tournament. Baba holds the record for most kites cut down. As the boys put their new kite into the air, many other children flock to the roofs with their colors as well. The sky becomes a floating highway of soaring paper with kites racing in all directions. The goal is to fight another kite off, eventually cutting it's string taking it to the ground. The victor then chases the falling kite and claims it as his own. The boys have won the competition and as Hassan runs off to retrieve the downed kite, he encounters the three older boys from before. The boys want the kite but Hassan has promised it to Amir and stands his ground. They call him names, beat him up and in the end sodomise him. Amir looks on from the shadows but he is too afraid to stand up to the bullies. But things will never be the same between the boys after that.
The boys spend no time with each other and Baba begin to wonder what has happened. Amir even asks Baba to fire the servants which causes him to be ashamed of Amir's behavior. He states friends for life will never part ways. But Hassan's father refuses to stay any longer and takes his son and leaves.
In December, 1979 the Soviets invade Afghanistan. Amir's family can no longer stay at their home as the whole city knows the contempt Baba has for communism as he has verbally insulted the Russians for many years. They flee their home headed for Pakistan and eventually America. They must be smuggled out inside an empty dark gas tanker.
1988 brings the graduation of Amir from community college in Fremont, CA. Baba is proud and they drink with others at a local tavern. Baba would prefer Amir become a doctor and Amir is fixed on becoming a writer. They live a meager life selling at the local swap meet during the day. It is here that Amir meets General Taher (Abdul Qadir Farookh) and his family, eventually winning the hand of his daughter for marriage.
The couple lives in San Francisco in 2000, with the passing of Baba, Amir gets word his dear old friend is ailing on Pakistan. He returns to Pashaway, Pakistan eventually making his way back into Afghanistan disguised as the Taliban. Nothing in his country is the same and the Taliban had outlawed kite flying. He learns of Hassan's death and Amir's goal is to find a small boy Sohrab (Ali Danish Bakhty Ari) from the orphanage and bring him home to America like his father had always done for his dear friends in the past.
Paramount VantageDirectors: Marc Forster, Rebecca Yeldham
Writer: David Benioff
Producers: E. Bennett Walsh, Walter Parkes, William Horberg
I viewed 5/08
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