The Kite Runner (2007)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
The story
In San Francisco in 2000, Afghan-American writer Amir Qadiri receives a call from his father's old friend, Rahim Khan, who is now in Pakistan. The story flashes back to 1978 Kabul, where 10-year-old Amir, the son of a wealthy philanthropist, is best friends with Hassan, the son of his father's servant. During a kite-fighting contest, Amir watches in fear as Hassan is trapped and assaulted by a local gang. Wracked with guilt, Amir avoids Hassan and eventually makes Hassan take the blame for a stolen watch. The narrative follows the lives of these characters through the tumultuous events of the Soviet invasion and the subsequent exodus of refugees.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In San Francisco in 2000, Amir Qadiri is contacted by Rahim Khan in Pakistan. The story moves to 1978 Kabul, where Amir and his friend Hassan participate in kite fighting. After Amir witnesses Assef and his gang assaulting Hassan, he fails to intervene and later frames Hassan for stealing his watch, causing Hassan's father to quit work. Following the Soviet invasion in 1979, Amir and his father, Baba, flee to Pakistan. In 1988, they settle in California, where Amir marries Soraya and Baba eventually dies of cancer. In 2000, Rahim reveals that Amir and Hassan were half-brothers and that Hassan was executed by the Taliban after refusing to vacate their home. Rahim tasks Amir with finding Hassan's son, Sohrab, in Kabul. Amir travels to Kabul under the Taliban regime, finds Sohrab in an orphanage, and rescues him from a Taliban official. After a confrontation with Assef, Amir and Sohrab flee to Peshawar. Finally, Amir returns to San Francisco with Sohrab, teaching the boy to fly kites and repeating the words Hassan once said to him.
- First release year
- 2007
- Runtime (minutes)
- 128
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- Dari; English; Pashto; Urdu
- Directors
- Marc Forster
- Writers
- David Benioff · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Khalid Abdalla · Amir Qadiri; Zekiria Ebrahimi · Young Amir; Homayoun Ershadi · the Agha Sahib (Baba); Shaun Toub · Rahim Khan; Atossa Leoni · Soraya; Saïd Taghmaoui · Farid; Ali Danish Bakhtyari · Sohrab; Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada · Hassan
- Genres
- drama
- Themes
- Guilt; Atonement; Brotherhood; Immigration; War
- Tone and mood
- Dramatic; Sentimental; Tumultuous
- Setting
- Kabul, Pakistan, and California during the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
- Premise and plot tags
- Historical Drama; Based on a Novel; Coming of Age; War Drama
- Source material / true-story basis
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (2003)
- Reception
- The film received moderately positive reviews from critics and was praised for its acting, though some criticized the script's handling of historical figures and the sentimentality of the direction.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 61 · scale: 100 · review count: 34
- Awards and nominations
- Golden Globe Award · Best Foreign Language Film · 2007 · Nominated; Golden Globe Award · Best Original Score · 2007 · Nominated; Academy Awards · Best Original Score · 2007 · Nominated
- Production trivia
- The film was shot primarily in Kashgar, China, due to safety concerns in Afghanistan.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…