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Starring: Khalid Abdalla, Zekeria Ebrahimi, Homayoun Ershadi, Ahmad Mahmidzada

Directed By: Marc Forster

It is still a miracle that movies can take you on such warm hearted journeys. The magic of cinema is its jelling with human condition. It doesn’t take time for you to fall in love with this movie. It stumbles on several age old cliches of cinema. But it is these cliches that surprise us in the end. It is a very simple tale of two kids who have shared their lives together for a long. They have been inseparable and always on the lookout for each other. But soon a rift begins to form between them for who they are. There is no struggle that the protagonist takes while his life is laid on velvet clothing. His father is a rich politically minded man who is afraid for his sons cowardice. He sometimes feels ashamed of it. But the characters actions are brought to light in the second half of the movie.

Considering the fact that it was a popular bestseller by Khalled Khaled Hosseini it doesnt still feel like a book. The non linear narrative of the story gives so much of pain to the reader that it sometimes hurts. You just wish for their lives to turn out better. The film begins with a phone call and the stage is set for this powerful film. Everything in the movie is about capturing the right emotion. The revolutionary streak in the movie is left for the last couple of reel. The overwhelming end is something of a marvel. It will just catch your breath and leave a trail of goosebumps and a well need smile.

Khaled Abdulla who plays Amar gives such a towering performance after his turn as a terrorist in United 93. But it is the two boys who take the movie to places where it needs to go. The film which was shot in Afghanistan and United States gets a rare authenticity from the directors treatment. But the film takes the path taken by Atonement where small misunderstanding and revelations can make such a big difference to the whole character study.
But to right this film of as any other foreign film would be a big mistake. Yes some of the scenes are rushed in this film but that is because of a faulty script. This has become of one of biggest problems Hollywood studios have been facing in last couple of months with all the writers strike and all.

Another strong trait of this film is the use of some good Handy Cam style shots that make the realism very grave. The film is not a easy pill to take for those who havent been exposed to such atrocities. But it does give respite in uplifting yet moving ending. This is a film to watch on your own and take time to think of what you can do with all this information that the director throws at you.

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