Pages

Friday, December 21, 2007

"The Kite Runner



'Kite Runner' Timely, Moving

"The Kite Runner" is an elegiac personal tragedy, a movie about guilt, shame, loyalty and friendship.

A tender redemptive tale of two boys who grow up to be men, with one taking much longer to grow up than the other, it reminds us that guilt endures even when relationships don't.

But if there is any claim to "epic" in this film based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini, it is its vivid depiction of the consequences of "Islamo-fascism," a before-and-after picture of Afghanistan that shows a land where civilization came to an abrupt end. You'd swear this Afghan "Killing Fields" was science fiction if we hadn't actually watched it happen.

In 1978, Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) is a child of wealth, a passive, sensitive boy who likes to "make up stories."

Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada, an open-faced wonder) is the son of Amir's family servant, an illiterate innocent who is Amir's best friend, his protector. They are like brothers. They do everything together and are at their very best when they fly their kite at Kabul's big kite festival. When they swoop in and cut the string of a foe in the sea of paper designs fluttering over the city, no one is better at running down and claiming the vanquished toy than Hassan, the greatest kite runner of them all.

But Amir's passivity bugs his widowed dad, played with warmth and character-building bluffness by Homayoun Ershadi

"A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who won't stand up for anything."

Amir's cowardice shows when Hassan, a member of the lower caste Hazara tribe, is assaulted by Pashtun bullies. He compounds his crime against his friend by finding a way to kick Hassan and his father out of his house. Hassan won't be there to remind Amir of his shame.

When the Russians roll in, Amir and his father flee across the border and make it to America (where Dad runs a convenience store). Years pass, Amir goes to college, marries and writes a novel.

That's when his past calls him back to Afghanistan to face his failings.

Marc Forster ("Finding Neverland") heightens the contrast between East and West. He keeps the simple thread of personal journey center stage and does well both by the lives the boys lead in pre-Soviet-invasion Afghanistan and Amir's American life, in which he hangs onto just enough Afghan customs to please his father.

Though the Soviet invasion shown here is anti-climactic, the escape to Pakistan is played for every ounce of harrowing that Forster can wring out of it. And scenes set in pre-9/11 Kabul, a moonscape denuded of trees, with "Beard Patrols" of Taliban fighters driving ruined streets ready to arrest or kill any man daring not to wear a beard and adhere to their interpretation of Islamic law, are beyond chilling.

Khalid Abdalla, as the adult Amir, takes the character's childhood passivity to an extreme, which renders him a bit dull. But his Amir is still the writer, the sensitive observer. Events and characters around him are much richer, more colorful than he could ever be.

"Kite Runner" takes us on a journey from picaresque and irreverent (Amir's dad calls the fundamentalist mullahs "bearded monkeys") to hopeful and universal. Visually arresting, politically controversial, perhaps its greatest virtue is its simple message of making wrong right. As Amir's dying uncle tells him when he summons the expatriate back to Afghanistan, "It's a very bad time. But you should come. Now, there is a way to be good again."

That sort of second chance is all any of us could ever hope for.

THE KITE RUNNER is a Paramount Classics release directed by Marc Forster from a screenplay by David Benioff based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini. Running time: 122 minutes. Rated PG-13 for strong thematic material including the rape of a child, violence and brief strong language. Opens today in area theaters.

Guilt trip takes Afghan immigrant back to familiar place.
Like Pan's Labyrinth in 2006, The Kite Runner is a movie about children but not for children.

The children here are two Afghan boys in 1970s Kabul. Bookish, tentative Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) is the son of a stern, wealthy father. Cheerful Hassan (Ahmed Khan Mahmidzada) is Amir's servant and best friend.

One winter day, the two cooperate to fend off the other children of Kabul during a competition in which kites with glass-coated strings are used to cut the strings of other players' kites until only one winning kite remains in the sky.

Once the kites are "liberated," other children chase them down.

Hassan, a champion "kite runner," offers to fetch a prize kite for Amir. When Hassan refuses to give up the kite to some older boys, he is brutally assaulted.

Amir witnesses the attack but is too scared to interfere or even to acknowledge that it has happened. His cowardice affects the lives of all involved, and the guilt he feels follows him through the decades.

Amir flees Kabul with his father after the Russian invasion, and attends high school and college in California while his father works at a gas station.

He marries and publishes his first novel. Then he receives a call from an old family friend, who tells him "There is a way to be good again," and he finds himself back in Afghanistan, now under the control of the Taliban.

David Benioff has adapted Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel with a sure hand, leaving out a few of the more melodramatic incidents and suggesting rather than showing much of the violence. He maintains the essentials of the plot as well as the book's elegiac tone.

Director Marc Forster (Finding Neverland), filming mostly in China, vividly re-creates scenes of life in the old Kabul, which contrast troublingly with present-day scenes. Most of the dialogue is subtitled, and careful attention has been paid to historical detail and to the life of Afghan immigrants in the United States.

Alberto Iglesias' evocative score adds to the film's underlying melancholy and soars in its rare moments of joy.

The boys acting the parts of Amir and Hassan are simple and unaffected, and their friendship seems genuine.

As the grown Amir, Khalid Abdalla (United 93) has dignity, although it's not always easy to sympathize with his constant mopiness.

The Kite Runner moves slowly and doesn't always overcome the weight of coincidence, but at its best, is a moving story of redemption and a window into a lost world.

The 25-year-old Henin, who triumphed at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open, captured a career-best 10 titles in 2007.



Federer and Henin Named ITF World Champions

World number ones Roger Federer and Justine Henin were named 2007 ITF World Champions, the governing body announced on Monday.
Federer, who won eight titles during the season, became only the second player after Pete Sampras to receive the accolade for the fourth successive year.

The 26-year-old reached all four major finals for the second successive year, winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open. He also became the first player to earn over $10 million in annual prize money.

"Each year brings new challenges, and I am proud that I have been able to raise the level of my game when needed. It gives me great satisfaction to have won another three grand slam titles and maintained the number one ranking," said Federer.

The 25-year-old Henin, who triumphed at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open, captured a career-best 10 titles in 2007.

With an impressive 63-4 win-loss record, she became the first woman to earn more than $5 million in a single year.

"This has definitely been the best season of my career so far and I am delighted to be named ITF world champion once again," said the Belgian, who missed the Australian Open in January following the breakdown of her marriage.

"It has been a very challenging year overall, but I have stayed positive and proved that nothing is impossible if you work hard. I still think my best tennis is yet to come."

American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, and Cara Black and Liezel Huber were named doubles world champions.

The Mercedes-powered team added in a statement that Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa would remain as the test driver.



MOTOR RACING/MCLAREN


McLaren Confirm Kovalainen for 2008

Finland's Heikki Kovalainen will race for McLaren next year in a straight swap with double Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso, who has taken his place at Renault.

Mercedes-powered McLaren confirmed in a statement on Friday that the Finn will replace the Spaniard alongside 22-year-old Briton Lewis Hamilton, this year's overall runner-up in his rookie season.

Spaniard Pedro de la Rosa, who had hoped to fill the vacancy, will remain as McLaren's reserve driver while Briton Gary Paffett will also be available to help with testing when required.

McLaren have had three previous Finnish drivers in world champions Keke Rosberg, Mika Hakkinen and Kimi Raikkonen. Kovalainen, 26, said he was honoured to follow in their footsteps.

"So far I have been blown away by the dedication and commitment to winning which is clear through the entire organisation and I am really excited about our joint future," he said in the statement.

"As a Finn, it's an honour for me to follow in Mika and Kimi's footsteps.

"I haven't really spent a lot of time with Lewis so far but from what I know, I think we will work well together and do our best for the team," he added.


LONG-TERM DEAL

McLaren said the Finn, who took a fine second place in this year's Japanese Grand Prix in a difficult rookie season at Renault, had signed a long-term contract. No financial details were given.

Kovalainen was runner-up in the GP2, the support series Hamilton won last year, to Germany's Nico Rosberg in 2005.

"We had a number of options open to us," commented McLaren's chief operating officer Martin Whitmarsh. "I think that Lewis and Heikki will be a formidable combination.

"I am confident that they will push each other on track and work well together off track."

Hamilton, winner of four races this year in a record-breaking rookie season, said he looked forward to working with his new team mate with the new car scheduled to run for the first time in Jerez in the second week of January.

Kovalainen said he was not worried about Hamilton's exceptionally close relationship with the team, who have backed the Briton for the past decade, and believed he would also have a chance to win the championship next year.

"It's up to me to build relationships with the team and the people around me," he said.

"I know they will work so hard to give me the best opportunity. Also after the 2007 season, I don't think there can be any doubt that the team is totally committed to equality amongst its drivers."

Alonso's relationship with McLaren foundered after the team refused to favour him over his rookie team mate, who ended up beating him in the championship.

The Spaniard also fell foul of team management amid the fallout of a spying controversy that ended with McLaren fined $100 million and stripped of all their constructors' points for having Ferrari data.

"I am employed to drive the car and am not a political animal at all," said Kovalainen. "There was obviously a lot going on in 2007 but it's not for me to talk about.

"It's not for me to judge what went wrong with Fernando and the team and I am really not interested."

The McLaren seat was the last remaining vacancy at a top team, with only Force India and struggling Super Aguri still to confirm their 2008 drivers.

many years’ break, Manhattan’s Fashion Walk of Fashion is getting ready to raise a small fashion altar for new designers.



Fashion Walk of Fashion Active Again

After a many years’ break, Manhattan’s Fashion Walk of Fashion is getting ready to raise a small fashion altar for new designers.

For the first time after 5 year new designers, featuring Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein, Bill Blass and Geoffry Beene, will be included in the Manhattan’s Fashion Walk of Fashion in Seventh Avenue.

The organizers changed some criteria for the membership: designers must be Americans with a show room in New York and to have been at least 10 years in the business. Now 114 fashion experts have sent envelopes containing the name of their favourite who will receive a small altar next year. They will have to vote for one living and one deceased designer, Vogue reports.

Gisele Bundchen in cooperation with designer duo D&G is preparing to launch her own collection



Gisele Designs a Collection with D&G

Famous Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen is getting ready to design her own collection with the help of her qualified friends Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. Bundchen by Dolce & Gabbana is expected on the market in Spring 2008.

The 27-year-old model has strong sense of aesthetics, and a great talent for business at the same time. In fact, she has already launched a line of sandals in cooperation with the fashion company Grendene under the name Ipanema Gisele Bundchen. The collection was a great success. Forbes raised her to the 53rd place of the most powerful famous figures due to this footwear line.