A sweet and masterful story of survival, transcendence, loyalty and friendship told with striking cinematography. A spiritual piece of work
A relative newcomer with a lot of momentum, director Marc Forster set a high mark with his critically acclaimed “Finding Neverland” (2004) and “Monster's Ball” (2001). If this is the year of atonement, what with Joe Wright’s “Atonement” entering the fray as a sure-fire Oscar contender, this film of atoning for youthful sins is sure to be mentioned as well at the academy awards.
Khalid Abdalla plays Amir, a grown man who has returned to his homeland after twenty years of exile with his father. They fled to Pakistan and then to America to escape the Soviet invasion of the late 1970s. Amir’s wealthy and successful businessman father, Baba (Homayon Ershadi), was an outspoken critic of communism and knew he would be the first to be hit by the Russians. Eventually the two ended up in California eking out a meager, if peaceful, living selling cast-offs in a flea market.
The first half of the film deals with young Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) growing up with his childhood best buddy Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada) who has been taken in by Amir’s wealthy father. Hassan is from a provincial tribe out of the mainstream orthodox Muslim practitioners who would eventually become the ruling Taliban. He is persecuted but sticks up for his meek friend Amir to the last.
Fate intervenes in the assault of Hassan while Amir secretly watches, too afraid to intervene and protect Amir, even though Amir had protected him many times before. Hassan compounds his error by covering up his cowardice but eventually finds both the truth of his own lineage and the ability to atone for his youthful sins at the same time.
The film has been roundly condemned by the Taliban, as one would expect of a film that roundly condemned the Taliban first. It is probably no secret by now that the film depicts the Moslem extremists as bloody, obsessed and sexually perverted, none of which is likely to be true, at least not of the same person at the same time.
Perhaps the statement is that the Taliban, now that they have absolute power, are being corrupted absolutely. Perhaps the original sin itself is not the point; it is the atonement that counts. The enduring lesson that it is never too late to make good on an obligation.
The cinematography is sharp, using the stark plains of Afghanistan as a backdrop but filling in with scenes of the lush closeness of the village-like neighborhoods of the city. The opening kite dual followed by the running scene through the markets and back alleys of Kabul is one of the best cinematic sequences in any film this year. It is as fascinating in its subjects as it is masterful in its presentation. The background is stark, but not so stark as to be boring or over used. On several trips across the border, the small economy car is dwarfed by the snow encrusted rock chunks of the mountains forming the border, a stolid symbol of the violent forces threatening to destroy men’s best intentions.
The setting of the film is summed up in the words of a Soviet border guard as he states his intention to rape a young refugee mother. In response to the rebuke “Where have you misplaced your shame,” the pathetic, lonely and emotionally scattered young soldier replies, “There is no shame in war.”
In the end, Amir finds and overcomes his shame. The fact that that he does so in an environment in which others seem to have lost theirs is to his everlasting credit. It is what allows this film to transcend the exploitation of war and rapine and ascend to forgiveness and reconciliation.
Release: December 14, 2007
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