This is a great movie about a young child (Amir) good at storytelling growing up with his best friend (Hassan) in Afghanistan in a well-to-do family. His best friend was the son of his father’s servant, Ali. They played together; Amir told good stories and Hassan was good at slingshot. During one of the kite runner festival, Amir won the race by “cutting” off all other kites. Hassan, like a good friend with an unconditional love for Amir, went to retrieve the kits and was raped by the bad neighborhood boys. Amir witnessed the whole thing and yet did nothing to help his friend. In fact, he turned even nastier toward his “damaged” friends and started to despise him and put him in trouble and resulted in his family’s departure from the household.

When the Russians’ tanks rolled in, Amir and his father escaped to America where Amir grew up to be a writer and his father owned a gas station in Fremont. After a marriage to a local Afghan girl, an Afghan’s general’s daughter, he was called back to see for the last time his mentor, his father’s best friend who listened to his stories and provided guidance to him when he was a child. Before his mentor’s death, he was told that Hassan was his half-brother and he was killed guarding his childhood home against the Talibans and he was asked to save Hassan’s son. With courage and determination and as a redemption of the sins he committed against Hassan, he went back to Kabul, Afghanistan and faced his arch rival Assef and rescued the boy.

This is a really good story about personal redemption and making amends to our friends and relatives, who may have given us unconditional love. The road to paying back may help us find our true self and make us a true hero. Love the story and the beautiful kite scenes. I have come to understand the life of the Afghan and the people a little more.