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An Afghani man (Khalid Abdalla) now living in America, remembers growing up in Afghanistan at a time when children took great pleasure in kite flying, before the Taliban took power and banned the activity. When he returns after receiving a call from an old friend, he finds a place very different from the one he used to call home, although the Taliban have ostensibly lost their hold over the country. Based on the international best-seller by Khaled Hosseini. Also with Shaun Toub, Nasser Memarzia, Said Taghmaoui and Atossa Leoni. Directed by Marc Forster. [2:02]
SEX/NUDITY 6 - During a rape scene a boy's pants are pulled down and his bare buttocks are visible; one boy mounts him and rapes him (we see the boy thrust once and the camera cuts away to another boy who is watching the attack -- please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
► A boy is led into a room where he is told to dance (the movements resemble a belly dance) and there is the implication that there is sexual activity between a man and the boy.
► A man is shown bare-chested, and a man is shown bare-chested during a medical exam. Women wear low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in several scenes.
► A truck with civilians is stopped and searched by armed soldiers and one soldier asks for half an hour with one of the women on the truck (nothing happens). A boy tells a man that a man would "come and get him every day" (the implication is that it is for sex). A young woman confesses to a young man who is about to propose marriage that she had run away with another man and they lived together for a month.
► Men and women dance together in a couple of scenes. A young man and a young woman talk and flirt. A young man and a young woman look at each other with interest.
VIOLENCE/GORE 6 - A boy is chased by three older boys, they corner him, they punch and kick him, tie his hands and one of the boys pulls his pants down; then one boy mounts him and rapes him (we see the boy thrust once and the camera cuts away to another boy who is watching the attack); blood drips onto the sand under a boy's feet as he walks and he seems to be limping after the attack.
► A woman with her head covered is bound and forced to kneel in a street where she is stoned to death (we see blood seep through the cloth covering her head and she slumps over dead); her body is dumped into the back of a truck.
► A boy with a slingshot shoots a man in the eye with a ball bearing, the man screams, covers his eye and blood seeps through his fingers.
► A man punches another man in the face repeatedly and knees and kicks him; blood drips from his mouth and nose, and his head is slammed into a picture hanging on the wall breaking the glass (we see his bloody head and face).
► As two men drive through village streets they see a dead man hanging.
► A man slaughters a goat; we see blood drip and the severed head is shown on the ground. We see a cow's severed head on a cart in a market place and many severed goat heads are also seen.
► Men with guns shoot at a car that's speeding away. We see bombed out villages with buildings in rubble and overturned cars.
► A boy with a slingshot shoots a nut at a dog striking it, and making it run away. A boy throws several pomegranates at another boy and they splash red juice onto his shirt.
► A truck with civilians is stopped and searched by armed soldiers and one soldier asks for half an hour with one of the women on the truck (nothing happens but another man on the truck yells at the soldier). A boy throws a stone at another boy and talks about him being different and "dirtying their blood." A boy says that his father hates him because he "killed his mother" (she died in childbirth). A boy talks about a man killing his wife (in a story). We hear that a student was stabbed and killed.
► A man talks about his son and daughter-in-law being murdered by being shot in the head and his grandson having been taken away. A man talks about another man taking children -- usually girls, but in this instance his grandson. A man talks about mistreatment of people by Russian communists who invaded their country. A boy asks another boy if he would eat dirt for him (he doesn't).
► Men with guns search a man as he enters a compound. We see tanks and armed soldiers moving through streets. At a funeral we see a coffin lowered into the ground and dirt shoveled over it.
► We see children along a rubble-strewn street missing a limb and running on crutches. We see a man selling his artificial leg on the street. A sick man lies in a hospital bed.
PROFANITY 3 - 1 sexual reference, 2 scatological terms, 1 derogatory term for homosexuals, name-calling (dog, fool, donkey, stupid, coward), 1 religious profanity. [profanity glossary]
SUBSTANCE USE - A woman tells a man that she will come with his morphine (the man is dying). People drink alcohol at a party, men drink alcohol in other circumstances, and people drink wine with dinner. Several men are shown smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol in a bar scene, and men smoke cigarettes in several other scenes.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Afghanistan, the Taliban, rape, guilt, forgiveness, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, family, hatred of America and all things American, standing up for yourself, bullies, racism, shame, sin, friendship, lack of decency, justice, punishment, infidelity, pedophilia, honor, freedom, kindness, storytelling, competition, parental pride, disappointment, sacrifice.
MESSAGE - The failure to act in order to prevent an atrocity can haunt someone for the rest of one's life. |
