Kite Runner Movie
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Afghanistan has not had the most peaceful of times during the last 30 years or so. In 1973, a coup deposed the last Shah, replacing him with a president, Mohammed Daoud Khan. Khan was deposed and murdered just five years later when Communists seized power and created the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan, aligned with the USSR. In 1979, regional instability led to a Soviet invasion, which was opposed and ultimately repelled by a Muslim force, the mujahedin. After the expulsion of the Soviets, control of the country fell to the mujahedin and ultimately the Taliban, a repressive fundamentalist Islamic regime. By 2001 there was again regime change as the US-led coalition invaded, deposed the taliban, and occupied much of the country. That’s at least four regime changes, two invasions and untold thousands of people killed, all in barely a generation—not particularly stable!
Set against this destructive backdrop is The Kite Runner. The story begins in the early 1970s, when Amir is a young boy; a rich child, Amir is close friends with his servant boy Hassan, and this friendship sets in motion the book’s main plot, and Amir’s main struggle. The story is presented as a memoir, and in its fictional world Amir is an author; this allows Hosseini, by manipulating Amir’s narrative, to frequently flash forward and hint at future events. Such occurances are perhaps a little frequent and trite (“I felt happy… but I wouldn’t have, had I known what exciting event was coming next!
It matters little, though, because the story’s plot is not what makes it so gripping, it’s the character development. Amir is the centrepiece, of course: his struggle for redemption following the betrayal of Hassan forms most of the plot. However, there is also a fairly large cast of secondary characters who are equally deeply explored—not least Amir’s two main foils, Hassan and Soraya, whose virtuousness—in contrast to Amir’s deeply flawed personality—rarely feels forced. Its treatment of Amir’s guilt is really well done; first we revile him, then as he struggles with the realisation and comprehension of his act we begin to forgive him. I won’t give anything