THE KITE RUNNER
When adapting “The Kite Runner,” a novel beloved by basically the entire world, it’s important to nail the details.
“There’s a scene where the father is in the hospital,” says director Marc Forster, “and the general comes in with his wife and his daughter Soraya, and Amir gets up and leaves, and Soraya comes out to him in the hallway.
“In the script, I had written that she touches him on the hand – which is totally normal in a Western culture. But [author] Khaled Hosseini read it and said, ‘No, in our culture that would never happen. She can’t touch him.’ And it’s these little things which need to be just right.”
With all the recent attention paid to the two child stars of the film – who recently fled their native Afghanistan to avoid possible persecution – it’s all too easy to overlook the main reason Forster wanted to undertake, and perfect, the project: its essential message of hope and human decency.
Hosseini’s novel tells the story of Amir and Hassan, two boys growing up in 1970s Kabul, and then of Amir’s adult life, in which he grapples with the memory of a childhood incident that changed both of their lives forever.
“When I read it, I thought, this is my first time reading a story about that part of the world which doesn’t have violence or terrorists as the lead characters,” Forster says. “It really deals with a human story about forgiveness, healing and atonement. And I think that’s so beautiful, because every time you open the paper you read about Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. You don’t think about the people who were there before.”
Two years ago, when Forster and his casting agent went to Kabul to audition schoolchildren for the roles of young Amir and Hassan, there was a feeling that things were improving in the war-torn capital. “Kate [Dowd, the casting director] traveled alone all the time in Kabul, for two months,” he says. “She was wearing just a scarf over her head. She was casting there on her own, dealing with men. It was no problem. That was pretty extraordinary.”
But in a mirror of the book’s chronology, the country has since taken a turn for the worse. “For a while, it felt like there was a spark of hope for this country,” says Forster. “There was this time period when you really felt things could go right. And now, there’s been this new rise of the Taliban again.”
The movie was shot in western China, but Forster recruited many Afghani actors for the film. One tough scene in particular called for a large number of extras: the public stoning of a couple by the Taliban, in a stadium. Unfortunately, says Forster, many of his actors were able to furnish details about what such a moment was really like.
“There were people in the cast who’d witnessed executions,” he says. “The man who plays the kite seller, his son was executed in front of his eyes. These kinds of stories are pretty much a daily occurrence. Everybody has a tragic story. It’s really very sad.”
As for whether the movie will actually be viewed in Afghanistan, Forster leaves the issue open: “It’s not going to be released there,” he says. “Most of the theaters were destroyed by the Taliban.
“But there’s piracy,” he adds. “Copies will end up on the streets.”
