dave2zero

I vaguely recalled that The Kite Runner involved Afghanistan before I walked into the theater with my friend Ralph.  I also assumed it had to do something with kites.  Beyond that, I knew nothing about it. 

The Kite Runner blew me away with its beauty.  Beautiful cinematography, editing and original score for sure.  But also beautiful stories of friendship, family, love, past times, pastimes, the Afghan culture, and  immigration.  Most beautiful of all to me were how the dark themes of betrayal, abuse, and loss were redeemed in the lives of the characters.  Bad, horrible, ugly stuff was rescued through the actions and growth of people and through their lessons learned from mistakes. 

The opening scene of the film was actually set in Berkeley, of all places. (I liked it from the start).  There is a wonderful place to fly kites down by the bay in the Berkeley marina.  From there the film went back to the childhood life of one of the adult characters, introduced briefly at the start, and continued forward, back to the present day, ending in Berkeley. 

I don’t want to be a spoiler at all, so I will simply encourage you to see it and enjoy for yourself.