The Kite Runner (Afghanistan 2007, 127 min, dir: Marc Forster, cast: Khalid Abdalla, Shaun Toub, Homayoun Ershadi)

The short list of films shot in Afghanistan includes The Kite Runner, Kandahar, and The Horsemen. All are journey films, but The Horseman is about travels in country, whereas the other two are travels to the country. In The Kite Runner, Amir leaves California for his homeland, honor bound to find redemption for a horrible mistake of his youth.

The core of the story is this: Amir was born Pashtun. That means he is entitled to everything. His childhood friend Hassan was born Hazara: meaning he is entitled to nothing. Understanding this starts to make some sense of Afghani tribal society and the winless war we fight against the Taliban.

The story that peels like an onion: exposing new layers and filled with tears. Amir learns the secret of his childhood relationship with Hassan, and what he must do to redeem himself. There’ more to The Kite Runner than just seeing the movie. Do a search in Netflix for the 1971 film, The Horsemen, starring Omar Sharif (it is so rare that Amazon and eBay sell copies for five times the normal price). The Horsemen was shot in Afghanistan long before the Russians invaded, and long before the Taliban even had a name.

Seeing the rough, tribal way of life among primitive peoples (with Omar Sharif playing an Afghan) is an ethnographic experience. Add to that the artificial legs in Kandahar, and the brutal sodomy of the Taliban in The Kite Runner and you begin to understand a country few in the West have bothered to know. And then read Robert D. Kaplan’s “Soldiers of God” and Rory Stewart’s “The Places In Between.” And then see The Kite Runner.