The Kite Runner

I recently decided to read Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner. I wanted to read it before the film comes out later this year, and I was traveling to Ireland, so it seemed like an appropriate time. I did not expect understand or enjoy the book as much as I did, not being as up to date on the conflicts in the Middle East as I would like to be.

The story of The Kite Runner focuses around the life of Amir, and follows him from his childhood in Kabul, his teenage and adult years in California (Fremont), and back to Kabul in search of a boy whom he feels can redeem the mistakes he has made.

This isn’t a total spoiler, but the book features a rape scene of a little boy. It is graphic and hard to get through, especially because it turns into a major plot point, and Amir revisits his memory of the incident frequently throughout the story. Now, the boy who plays the victim in the film, Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, and his family, are requesting that the rape scene in the film be cut because they fear for their safety. Claiming the scene (that the actor reluctantly filmed) would offend Afghans and bring shame to their family, Mhmidzada fears his family would be ostracized because Afghans do not fully understand the difference between fantasy and reality of the film industry. While ethnic conflict has decreased greatly since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, the people of Afghanistan worry for any triggers to set the conflict back in action.

This is a major issue for the film, whose plot centers around this pivotal plot point. While the film's producers, Bennett Walsh and Rebecca Yeldham placed the sensitivity of the boys involved in the film as a number one priority, at what point does that involve compromising the integrity of the story and/or the film. The boy claims he was not given the script or the story prior to filming, and would not have agreed to the scene had he known. I was trying to think of how they could express this story without graphically depicting the rape, whether they could elude to it or could have used doubles to suggest the oncomings of the event and then cut to the next scene. But there is also something about the books honesty and rawness that shows the dark and ugly side of a country that was once beautiful and peaceful, and the rape is a pivotal moment not only in terms of the direct plot of the story, but also in the telling of the political history of the era in which the story takes place. They’ve certainly got their issues cut out for them, but they have until the end of November to reach an agreement. The Kite Runner hits theaters on November 22. Do yourself a favor and pick up the book beforehand.