Amir is shocked, but still pledges his love, and they marry. Her father retrieved her, and soon after they moved to California. On a chaperoned stroll, Soraya reveals the Taheris had to move from Virginia, due to the gossip after she had run off to live with a Pashtun man. Soon after Baba is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, Amir requests he ask General Taheri’s for Soraya's hand in marriage, which he does. He gives her his story, but the General confiscates it. When Amir meets Taheri's daughter Soraya, he's interested. One day, at the flea market, Baba introduces him to General Taheri, a Pashtun and former Afgan army officer. After earning a degree at the local community college, Baba has Amir work with him. In 1988, Baba runs a service station and operates a stall at a weekly flea market in Fremont, California. Frightened, Baba gets Amir to recite poems. In June 1979, as the Soviet Union militarily intervenes, Baba and Amir flee to Pakistan inside an oil truck. Although he quickly forgives him, Ali feels dishonored, and immediately quits, much to Baba's distress. Baba confronts him, and he takes the blame. The next day, Amir makes it look like Hassan stole his birthday wristwatch. Amir asks Baba if he would ever replace Ali and Hassan and is angrily rebuked.Īmir can't enjoy his 11th birthday party, still upset by the incident. Ali and Baba question Amir on Hassan's strange behavior, but he feigns ignorance. Wracked with guilt over the next few weeks he avoids Hassan. Assef demands Amir's kite to release him but he refuses, so they beat and rape Hassan in retaliation.Īmir watches unseen, too afraid to intervene. Amir searches for him, finding him trapped in a dead end by Assef and his gang. On Hassan's birthday, Amir gifts Hassan a US made one.Įntering the citywide kite-fighting contest, Amir breaks his father's record of 14 'kills', and Hassan runs after the last defeated kite. He accurately predicts where loose kites will land and has deadly aim with his slingshot. Amir does kite fighting, and Hassan is his spool-holder and 'kite runner'. His best friend Hassan is his longtime servant Ali's son, a Hazara. In 1978 Kabul, 10-year-old Amir is the son of a wealthy Pashtun philanthropist and iconoclast, known locally as Agha Sahib, whom Amir calls 'Baba'. Arriving home, Amir receives a call from his father's old friend and business associate Rahim Khan from Peshawar, Pakistan. In 2000 San Francisco, Afghan-American writer Amir Qadiri and his wife Soraya watch children flying kites. The film's score by Alberto Iglesias was nominated for Best Original Score at the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007. Made on a budget of $20 million, the film earned $73.2 million worldwide. The controversial scenes also resulted in the film being banned from cinemas and distribution in Afghanistan itself. However, after concern for the safety of the young actors in the film due to fears of violent reprisals to the sexual nature of some scenes in which they appear, its release date was pushed back six weeks to December 14, 2007. Filming wrapped up on December 21, 2006, and the film was expected to be released on November 2, 2007.

The child actors are native speakers, but several adult actors had to learn Dari. The majority of the film's dialogue is in Dari Persian, with the remainder spoken in English and a few short scenes in Pashto and Urdu. Though most of the film is set in Afghanistan, these parts were mostly shot in Kashgar in Xinjiang, China, due to the dangers of filming in Afghanistan at the time. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet military intervention, the mass exodus of Afghan refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the Taliban regime.

It tells the story of Amir, a well-to-do boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul who is tormented by the guilt of abandoning his friend Hassan. The Kite Runner is a 2007 American drama film directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by David Benioff and based on the 2003 novel of the same name by Khaled Hosseini.

Kite movie rating