Had the United States not invaded Afghanistan, it’s likely that movies such as Kandahar and The Kite Runner would not have been made, or at least not with large budgets. Hence our getting to see The Kite Runner is, in a way, a consequence of the war.
It is an adventure set before the invasion, giving a rich portrait of Afghanistan, but which also, in its depiction of the country, seems to say that this is a society with something inherently brutal in it. Apart from that, it’s a worthy reflection on the way life brutalises children — and the long-term effect of that in adulthood.
A man returns to Afghanistan, which he left in his youth, from the US; he is in search of a childhood companion, the son of his father’s servant, and in the process discovers something about the society he comes from and thus himself. Strongly emotional, the film is directed by Marc Forster and based on the bestselling novel by Khaled Hosseini.