“For me America was a place to bury my memories” wrote Khaled Hosseini but now his huge bestseller, ‘The Kite Runner’, is to get the movie treatment those memories are set to be subjected to the cinematic glare.
The book is traditional in the sense that the focus is on telling the story in straightforward language – there’s no post-modernist trickery in what is in essence a modern day morality tale set against the backdrop of the Afgan war . It is most powerful when Hossein tells of the bitterness over the destruction of Kabul and the brutality of the Taliban. I’ll keep an open mind, but I fear that these aspects of the novel will not come across so well in the movie treatment The fact that the movie is to be directed by ‘Finding Neverland”s Mark Foster (who is also lined up for the next Bond) suggests that it will try to tug at the heartstrings rather than attempt anything rawer. I’m looking forward to seeing it just the same.
The trailer can be seen here – it’s due for release in November.
