THE KITE RUNNER. Dir Marc Forster. 2007

Image result for movie images the kite runner

Shame runs right through this redemption story, the filmed adaptation of the bestselling novel by Khaled Hosseini. The central character, pre-pubescent, aspiring writer Amir, is not an easy boy to like, and he disappoints his father, (an apparently shining example of the chivalric), because he is not a manly boy. Amir’s doggedly loyal young friend and servant, however, is a moral barometer, a knight in the making, saintly and ballsy by turns.

The opening credits use fabulous graphics and atmospheric music to create a sense of the eastern exotic and conjure up childhood tales from 1001 Arabian nights – Amir is a storyteller after all – but the film is strongly realist.

The Russians invade Afghanistan, Amir escapes to America with his father, and they must adapt from their ancient code of caste rules and family honour to consumer culture. Twenty years later, he returns to war torn Kabul, in the grip of the Taliban, his time of revelations.

Wholly masculine, apart from cameos of two Iranian women (Amir’s open, westernized young wife resettled in the US and a brutally persecuted, burkha covered woman), the film bears witness to male rape: of country and culture. It is about growing up, destruction of innocence, and theft. A key speech from Amir’s father focuses on theft as the root of all crimes, of possessions, liberty or life.

Amir keeps his own secrets and his rite of passage into adulthood is personal. Although the usual childhood demons are present, in the form of neighbourhood bullies and fractured communication with his father, Amir’s story is an allegorical one about devotion, dignity, and the need to fight for oneself, and for others. This is a sensitive and absorbing film about friendship, responsibilities and the importance of honour.

Comments

GLORIOUS 39. Dir Stephen Poliakoff. 2009

Glorious 39 strips away illusions. Poliakoff presents the apparent idyll of an English aristocratic family headed by genteel patriarch Lord Keyes (Bill Nighy). He presides over a country estate in Norfolk and his elegant townhouse in London – a world of golden light, romantic ruins, servants, house parties and happy children. But this is 1939, a mere 21 years since the Great War, the war to end all wars, in which millions died, Britain was crippled with war debt, and the English country house system which he so values was almost annihilated. There are many references to the ancientness of his family and tradition, but now, few male servants remained alive or unmaimed to work the English landscape or to be in service to the old families. Fearing domestic and political upheaval, appeasers such as Keyes sought to prevent Churchill leading the country and taking Britan to war, and to buy off Hitler to preserve British cultural and national identity. Nighty is excellent, contro...

LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE. Dir. Julio Medem 1998

I should have done some research before going to see this because I thought it was going to be about lovers in the Arctic Circle. Instead of being transported to the icy wastes of an unfamiliar landscape the film is set in urban Spain, but in a very cold Spain with wind, rain and everyone in thick jumpers. Shot in near monochrome, the effect is cold and the Spartan interiors of apartments provide a bleak, comfortless setting for love to blossom. Otto and Ana meet as children and are attracted to each other due to the nature of coincidence, and coincidence plays a large part in the narrative. The two children are engaging and there are some comic scenes between them when young and, later, as teenagers, with trysts in the night and their love kept secret. However, once they’re older the story loses momentum and, at times becomes surreal and confusing as the viewpoint moves in and out of the two characters’ imaginations. Otto suffers an extreme grief reaction when his mother acci...

Running ‘till your nipples bleed

An email from a friend of mine arrives; she complains that, at work, she is routinely subjected to gruesome accounts of female colleagues’ intimate medical procedures and gynaecological problems. I am all commiseration because I, too, have had years of listening to workplace chats about periods, childbirth and sex lives. Oh please. Later, I wander off for a walk in the early evening sunshine and it is so silent and so beautiful that I flop down on the grass and lay awhile gazing out over the rolling fields, and the mouth of the river, and fall into a reverie. Two men pass by. A few minutes later sounds of women’s talk float nearer and, by the time the two females of the species draw level with me, I have risen up from my deliciously recumbent position in the meadow, alert and tense, something like a meerkat. “I do feel for her. Going down that IVF route is such an emotional roller coaster. I was never prepared for how terrible it was going to be.” I remain frozen in my meerkat position...

Just For Lookin' Thru

Search This Blog