CINEMA NOUVEAU PRESENTS THE KITE RUNNER

Cinema Nouveau’s line-up of notable and
successful films continues at the Bama Theatre with
The Kite Runner, March 14 - 20, 2008. Showtimes are
weeknights and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at
2:00 p.m. $7 will be charged for general admission,
$6 for seniors and children, and $5 for Arts Council
members. Call 758-5195 or go to www.tuscarts.org for
more information. Tickets will be on sale at the Bama
box office approximately one half hour before
showtime. The Bama Theatre is located at 600
Greensboro Avenue, in Tuscaloosa .

March 14 - 20 , 2008
“The Kite Runner ” (2007)
Directed by Marc Forster
Drama / Rated PG-13 / 2 hours /
English-Dari-Pashtu-Urdu-Russian / color
Starring Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub,
Sayed Jafar Masihullah Gharibzada
Nominated for 2008 Golden Globe for Best Foreign
Language Film

Synopsis
Based on the international bestseller by Khaled
Hosseini, The Kite Runner is a fascinating historical
epic set in 20th-century Afghanistan. In 1978, Amir
(Zekiria Ebrahimi) and Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada)
are young boys living in Kabul , where Hassan and his
father, Ali (Nabi Tanha), work as servants for Amir
and his father, Baba (Homayoun Ershadi). Amir and
Hassan make an excellent team in kite competitions,
with Hassan having a gift for running down kites, but
after one contest, he is bullied by Assef (Elham
Ehsas), who does unspeakable things to him as Amir
watches from a distance and then runs away, not
helping his friend. As the Russians and then the
Taliban take over Afghanistan , Baba and Amir escape
to America , where they make a new home in San
Francisco . But even as he graduates from college and
meets a beautiful young woman, Soraya (Atossa Leoni),
who is also from Kabul, Amir (now played by Khalid
Abdalla) is haunted by his cowardice and can't turn
down an opportunity to try to make things right when
it is offered by his father's old friend Rahim Khan
(Shaun Toub)--even if it means risking his life. The
Kite Runner was adapted for the screen by David
Benioff (The 25th Hour), with much of the dialogue
spoken in Dari, one of the primary languages in
Afghanistan . Director Marc Foster (Monster’s Ball,
Finding Neverland) does a deft job navigating the
complicated story, which moves from Afghanistan to San
Francisco and Pakistan (with much of the film actually
shot in China ), using many nonprofessional actors and
a subtle score composed by Alberto Iglesias. Ebrahimi
and Mahmoodzada make impressive debuts, with solid
work by Abddalla, Leoni, and especially Ershadi.