6/1/2023 0 Comments Kite runner pdfAhmad Khan Mahmoodzada, as young Hassan, is particularly striking, with his serious, sometimes almost mournful face. The performances by the actors playing Amir and Hassan as children are natural, convincing and powerful recently I have seen several such child performances that adults would envy for their conviction and strength. The movie is acted largely in English, although many (subtitled) scenes are in Dari, which I learn is an Afghan dialect of Farsi, or Persian. The film works so deeply on us because we have been so absorbed by its story, by its destinies, by the way these individuals become so important that we are forced to stop thinking of "Afghans" as simply a category of body counts on the news. One emblematic moment: A soccer game where the audience, all men and all oddly silent, is watched by guards with rifles. What happens back in Afghanistan (and Pakistan) in the year 2000 need not be revealed here, but the scenes combine great suspense with deep emotion. I want to mention once again the eyes, indeed the whole face, of the actor Homayoun Ershadi, as Amir's father here is a face so deeply good, it is difficult to imagine it reflecting unworthy feelings. For Amir and Soraya, it is instant love, but protocol must be observed, and one of the movie's warmest scenes involves the two old men discussing the future of their children. There is also a touching sequence as Amir and his father, now older and ill, meet a once-powerful Afghan general and his daughter Soraya (Atossa Leoni). This is all the same story, interlaced with the fabric of these lives. Working from Khaled Hosseini's best seller, Forster and his screenwriter David Benioff have made a film that sidesteps the emotional disconnects we often feel when a story moves between past and present. For if he had not lied about Hassan, they would all be together in San Francisco and the telephone call would not have been necessary. There is a way to be good again." Then commences a remarkable series of old memories and new realities, of the present trying to heal the wounds of the past, of an adult trying to repair the damage he set in motion as a boy. The film has opened with the modern-day Amir, now living in San Francisco, receiving a telephone call from Rahim Khan: "You should come home. It is Hassan's father, Ali, who insists he and his son must leave the home, over Baba's protests. Then Amir tries to plant evidence to make Hassan seem like a thief, but even after Hassan (untruthfully and masochistically) confesses, Baba forgives him. Amir feels so guilty about Hassan that his feelings transform into anger, and he tries insulting his friend, even throwing ripe fruit at him, but Hassan is impassive. Amir arrives to see the assault taking place, and to his shame, sneaks away. On a day that will shape the course of many lives, he and his gang track down Hassan, attack him and rape him. There is a neighborhood bully named Assef, jealous of Amir's kite, his skills and his kite runner. Baba, whose kindly eyes are benevolent, loves both boys. Amir's father, Baba ( Homayoun Ershadi), is an intellectual and secularist who has no use for the mullahs. The boys live in a healthy, vibrant city, not yet touched by war.
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