When it was published in 2003, "The Kite Runner" brought the life and culture of Afghanistan to an America largely wary of the country with which it had gone to war just two years before. Now, Khaled Hosseini's best-selling novel has been given the screen adaptation it richly deserves. Gorgeously filmed in Northern California and China (which stands in for Afghanistan), "The Kite Runner" keeps things simple and elegant. After a brief opening sequence in modern-day California, the film jumps back in time to 1970s Kabul, when the country was in the throes of a communist revolution and an impending Soviet invasion. Twelve-year-old Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) lives with the prosperous widowed father he calls Baba (Homayoun Ershadi) in a beautiful house on the city's outskirts. Amir's best friend is Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada), the family servant's son, who is from the stigmatized Hazari tribe. As the boys do what boys do in Kabul, including flying brightly colored kites, they are routinely bullied by kids of the privileged Pashtun sect to which Amir belongs.

It's after one of Kabul's cherished "kite fighting" tournaments that Hassan runs afoul of some of those bullies, who proceed to brutally rape him. Amir looks on, and the ensuing shame will haunt him the rest of his life. Director Marc Forster's biggest challenge in bringing this sweeping story to the screen, at least in the eyes of many readers, was to find just the right actors to bring these characters to life. He has succeeded: Ebrahimi and Mahmidzada ring true as the ambivalent master and the martyred, supremely devoted servant.

When events shift to the present day, Amir is played by the enormously appealing Khalid Abdalla, who infuses an otherwise unsympathetic character with warmth. "The Kite Runner" succumbs to some contrivance in its third act, when Amir's difficult relationship with his overbearing father comes melodramatically into play. But by then the audience is too invested in the characters to care.

For all the pain and loss that "The Kite Runner" depicts, it is still a film of exhilarating, redemptive humanity, conveying an enduring sense of hope.

-- Ann Hornaday (Dec. 14, 2007)

Contains adult themes, including the sexual assault of a child, violence and brief strong profanity.