The Kite Runner

WARNING: possible plot spoilers ahead, if you plan on seeing this movie you may not want to read this.

"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit"

1 Peter 3:18

My brother lives in Baltimore. Every time I visit him we make it a point to eat at The Helmand. The Helmand serves cuisine from Afghanistan, and it's owner is the brother of the current democratically elected president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai. It's fabulous! It's our favorite restaurant in Baltimore.

Shannon and I saw The Kite Runner Saturday night. The film is closely based on the 2003 bestselling novel by Afghan American Khaled Hosseini, and tells the story of 20-plus years of Afghan history thru the eyes of Amir, who comes from a prominent family much like the Karzai family. I imagine the history of this real-life family closely mirrors that of the fictional family of the novel: driven from their home by the Soviet invasion, making a new life in America, then watching in horror as the Taliban rise from the ashes of Russian tanks to further brutalize their country. Now, with the U.S. led ouster of the Taliban there is new hope for Afghanistan.

As we walked out of the movie theater, Shannon commented that it had been a long time since a movie affected her so much. I knew what she meant. Among the many fine films in release right now (several of which I've sung the praises of right here) this one sneaks in under the radar and steals your heart. I haven't read Hosseini's novel, but if it's half as beautiful as the film then I should. Swiss Director Marc Forster, who previously brought us Monster's Ball (one of the most memorable films of 2001 and the one that netted an Oscar for Halle Berry) and then a string of several less-stellar pictures, shows he's a terrific director. This is a great achievement for him and screenwriter David Benioff (The 25th Hour, Troy). The cast is made up of mostly new or unfamiliar faces, including several key roles played by Dari speaking child actors. Forster shows a facility for directing his young stars and the pitch-perfect casting contributes greatly to the power of this film. I must single out the performance of Iranian Homayoun Ershadi (Taste of Cherry) though, who plays Amir's father (Baba), a character of immense nobility and moral courage. If Ershadi doesn't get nominated for an Academy Award, it will be a travesty.



Although The Kite Runner covers a broad span and has the feel of an epic tale (like the stories we read in the Old Testament), it never feels rushed. Actually, it felt longer than it's running time of 128 minutes, which is usually a bad thing, but in this case a positive. Forster lets moments linger and events unfold organically without a lot of fuss. To cite just one example, the death of Baba is handled with an elegant short-hand that befits his life -- in what seemed like (perhaps was) a single shot we see Amir and his wife helping the ill patriarch to bed, they say goodnight and shut the door, Baba kisses the locket that contains a bit of Afghan dirt picked up as he fled to Pakistan many years before, turns out the lamp on the nightstand, fade to black.

This story is a rich feast of themes for contemplation. The nature of sonship is a major one. Forgiveness. The immigrant experience is richly portrayed (perhaps the most joy-filled scene is when the Afghan community around San Francisco comes together to celebrate the wedding of Amir and Soraya, whose brief courtship is movingly portrayed). But above all the nature of sin and righteousness is explicit to an extent unusual for a Hollywood film. It's talked about right from the outset as Baba explains to young Amir what he thinks sin is, as opposed to what the mullahs teach about sin at Amir's school. Characters say things like "I feel dirty" and "there's a way to be good (righteous) again". It's this search for redemption (a way to be "good") that convinces a reluctant Amir, after growing up in the U.S. and having his first novel published, to travel back to his homeland, now under Taliban rule. He must don a fake beard and strange dress in order to fit in and not attract potentially lethal attention from the authorities. His journey turns into a quest. A quest to bring home a kinsman.

The sins that eat at Amir have their origin in an unusually close childhood friendship with a servant boy Hassan, a Hazara, a despised tribe looked down on by the Pashtun majority to which Amir belongs. There is triumph, betrayal and heartbreak. I won't say more. The Kite Runner ends on a note of hope and redemption, but it felt profoundly incomplete to me. For as the scripture above expresses, there is only one answer to mankind's sin problem and need for redemption. It's not a peaceful version of Islam or promise of a better life in America or the rebuilding of civil society in Afghanistan -- as wonderful a goal as that is...and followers of Jesus should be at the forefront of those efforts (more on that below). The only way to be truly good/clean/forgiven is to be found in Christ. That's the message I pray will be shouted in the streets of Kabul and mountain villages of Afghanistan.

There is one particularly chilling scene in The Kite Runner that left me quivering in my seat. It's powerfully mounted by Forster and shows the tragic consequences of the Taliban's brand of fundamentalist Islam...

Amir is in search of a particular Taliban official who he's been told will be making a speech at halftime of the soccer match. As promised, several pickup trucks filled with Taliban officials drive into the stadium as the players leave the field. In the back of one truck is a figure, a woman, bound, with her head and face covered. The mullah steps to the microphone and the woman is knelt on the ground. There is a pile of stones nearby. The mullah shouts WE ARE HERE TO CARRY OUT SHARIA IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD WHO REQUIRES A PUNISHMENT FOR SIN THIS WOMAN COMMITTED ADULTERY AND WE ARE HERE TO CARRY OUT THE PUNISHMENT THAT GOD REQUIRES! As the hundreds of bearded, turbaned men look on, and the mullah continues his diatribe, a stone strikes the woman in the head knocking her flat, then an avalanche of stones. Until her body goes limp. Her bloody corpse is dumped in the back of a truck and driven away. Another victim. Amir is horrified, as are we.

What a contrast to the scene in John 8! Like Saul before he encountered Christ on the Damascus road, these men think they're serving God by carrying out their murderous acts. They desperately need someone to bear witness to them about Jesus, who took upon himself the punishment required by God's law. He didn't excuse the sin of the woman caught in adultery, instead, he took the blows that were meant for her. This is a revolutionary message! Islam -- both the fundamentalist Taliban variety that results in public stonings and the more moderate brand that secular, Westernized Amir seems wistfully drawn to in one scene -- acutely recognizes the problem of sin, but so sadly misses the solution.

However, the good news of the gospel is going forward in Afghanistan. Last year 23 Korean medical missionaries traveled to Afghanistan to provide health care in orphanages (like the one shown in another scene in The Kite Runner that left me fighting back tears). The team's bus was hijacked by Taliban fighters and they were held hostage for over a month. Two members of the team, including the leader Pastor Bae, were shot to death before the rest were finally released. They were not the only ones risking their lives to bring the sacrificial love of Jesus to the Afghan people. Here's another story I came across recently.

"Was the door opened or closed?" This was the question repeatedly posed by a 30-year community development worker in Afghanistan. To make the point visual, she showed us a model of a door as it would look in Afghanistan. Within that door was a much smaller door. And she wasn't about to let us think that the door was ever closed! (I will not use her name for security reasons.)

She went with her family to do medical work in 1977, just before the Soviet invasion. During the early days of her work, she spent a good part of her time hiding in a cellar and praying that Soviet rockets wouldn't harm her or her Afghan neighbors. The Afghans noticed that she didn't leave when the going got tough. She and her family became known in the local communities as "the people who wouldn't leave."

Was she able to minister to spiritual needs while dodging missiles and tending to medical needs? Yes! While simply praying the Name of Jesus over and over again during a bombing, an Afghan Muslim woman felt that there was "something about that Name" that gave the missionary peace in the midst of turmoil.

Once a Mujahadeen freedom fighter named Faqir and 12 of his soldiers burst into the hospital and demanded food. He was hostile and threatening with this family. After eating, he confessed that he was consumed with a hatred that would not leave him alone. "Is there any escape from this hatred?" he blurted out. She said that there is only One person who can heal the heart from consuming hatred. She gave him a Bible, and he insisted that everyone be quiet while he read. Faqir was amazed at the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. He wanted Bibles for each of his men. She gave Bibles out to these Muslims. Faqir died a month later, but we don't know if he ever accepted Christ.

Once she and her husband went to the mountainous Nuristan region to set up a temporary medical clinic. Men wearing white robes arrived, and one of their daughters thought they might be seeing angels. They certainly weren't! These were Taliban "missionaries." The Taliban men told this woman and her family that their presence in this Muslim country was "defiling the land." They slapped her and treated the Nuristani people arrogantly. These well-armed Taliban men insisted on giving the Nuristani villagers Islamic religious instruction to show them the "true way."

Eventually, the village headman had had enough. He began to make a clucking sound in his throat, which was a sign for his men to come with their guns. When his men arrived, they drove the Taliban out of their villages, and asked the community development workers to "stay forever."

So was the door closed when the Soviets invaded? Did the Mujahadeen freedom fighters close the door? What about the Taliban Era? What about in today's situation? The truth of the matter is that the door was open all along. But it did mean that this family had to live with almost constant danger. And that's a big order!

In today's world, there are many open doors for community development in Central Asian countries. Who will count the cost, and walk through the door?

Keith Carey, Global Prayer Digest (November 2007)