I just finished watching this incredible movie about two afghan boys who are separated during the Soviet Invasion of their country in 1979. One goes to America while the other stays behind. 20 years later, the boy who escaped goes back for his friend.

It's based on the novel by Khaled Hosseini and directed by Marc Forster (Finding Neverland, Stranger than fiction) and is seriously a must-see movie. One of the best of the year. Most of the film's dialogue is in Dari, which is the Persian language spoken in Afghanistan, but this has absolutely NO effect on anything. You get swept up in the characters, who are so complex and tragic, with great performances from the two child actors, that you just can't stop watching. And this despite the film has little to no action scenes.

The movie only got mixed to good reviews, but that's to be expected of a 2 hour long adaptation of an acclaimed novel. It's naturally condensed and a lot of the subplots and details of the novel won't be here. But if you haven't read the book, then you really owe it to yourself to watch the movie, instead of seeing National Treasure or whatever.

Strong recommendation!

"if you haven't read the book, then you really owe it to yourself to watch the movie, instead of seeing National Treasure or whatever."

Or even better, read the script. It is available here at SS.

It's a great movie. Tragic, bittersweet - but hopeful without being cloying. I had not read the novel ( although it's one I'd picked up countless times to leaf through in the bookstore), but the film is wonderful.

The film was great, especially the cinematography and the brilliant capture of Afghan lives, but it’s not even close to the greatness of the actual novel, which I highly recommend.

Another highly recommended read by this author, is his second book A Thousand Splendid Suns, which takes place at the same period of The Kite Runner but deals with an entirely different set of characters and circumstances. The two stories actually connect at some point (the orphanage scene)… This novel is also being made into a movie.