AFGHANISTAN: Afghani kite maker plays a role in the making of the movie "The Kite Runner".

A man living in a graveyard in a rubbish-strewn, rundown Kabul district is the unlikely hero behind the scenes of one of Hollywood's most eagerly anticipated movies this year. Noor Agha is widely acknowledged as the best kite maker in Afghanistan, where flying and duelling with kites is the closest thing the war-torn country has to a national sport. He also spent weeks training the movie's teenage protagonists in kite flying and duelling, skills they used on camera when the movie was shot in China last year. "The Kite-Runner", based on the best-selling novel by Khaled Housseni, hits the screens in November, featuring hundreds of kites painstakingly made by Agha in his shack in a graveyard in Kabul's Ashiqan Arifan area. There has been much controversy in Afghanistan, a conservative Muslim country, surrounding the book, and now the feature film. Afghans interviewed in Kabul on Thursday (October 18) are especially critical of the scene depicting a childhood rape of the main character. "We are absolutely against this part of the movie (the rape scene)," said Nadir Ali, a resident of Kabul. "None of the Afghan nation agrees with this movie and they want the maker of this movie to be put on a trial," he added. But Agha defended the movie and the boys he helped train for their roles. "I want to say to this boy (the actor in 'The Kite Runner') that he should not be embarrassed for the role he played. It is not shameful. As their trainer, I strongly support the role he has played. He should be proud that he is an actor now and should not worry at all," Aghan said. He says he hasn't seen any rushes of "The Kite-Runner", a story of fatherhood, friendship and betrayal which starts in 1970s Kabul and moves to California's San Francisco Bay area and back to Afghanistan when it was ruled by the Taliban. The screenplay follows the lives of a rich Kabul businessman's son and his companion, who chase kites that are cut loose in duels by the glass-sharpened twine -- thus The Kite-Runner. In the novel, Amir, the rich man's son, wins a Kabul kite-flying competition. Noor Agha has won it in reality several times, most recently this year.

ITN Source | October 22, 2007

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