25 January 2008 - 1 February 2008 Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Cricket ...

Volume 18 Issue: 2
25 January 2008 - 1 February 2008
of the film is disjointed and tokenistic — and Baba, initially a compelling and
enigmatic character, fades to soap opera caricature — although to its credit it does
efficiently capture Amir’s tangential journey from his cultural heritage into Western
modernity.
All of which provides the set-up for an ambitious but troublesome final act, where
Amir, now a stranger to his homeland, is compelled to return. He discovers that
Afghanistan is also now a stranger to him — the Taliban is in power, and his home
city of Kabul lies in waste. His purpose for returning is largely concerned with
confronting the guilt from his childhood, but the film degenerates into mindless
adventure with a dwindling sense of characterisation and ineffectively heavy-handed
pathos.
Effective or not, it’s fair to read a political subtext into the film. The plot concludes
in the year 2000; within 12 months September 11 will have occurred. The final scene,
where an Afghani man and child fly a kite on a Californian hillside, pays testament to
a US with its arms open in welcoming embrace. The unspoken inference is that a year
later, that embrace will have turned to a vice grip. On reflection it’s the film’s most
potent moment.
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