The Kite Runner

San Francisco, California

- You ready? - Yeah. Let's go.

- Is that what I think it is? - I think so.

- You nervous? - As long as they spelled my name right.

- You want a moment alone with it? - I want you right here with me.

There it is.

There it is.

Your baby.

I'll get it.

Hello?

Hello?

Amirjan.

Rahim Khan?

It is kind of you to remember.

I have missed you, Amir jan.

It's good to hear your voice.

You should come home.

Home?

I don't know if now's such a good time.

It's a very bad time, but you should come.

There is a way to be good again, Amir.

Kabul, Afghanistan

Take the spool. Hold it right.

Give me string!

Hold the spool right.

- I cut him! - Victory!

Victory!

This way!

Where are you going?

Catch it, it's going this way!

We're losing it!

Trust me!

What are you doing here?

Come sit, Amir.

You're wasting time here.

The kite went the other way.

It will come this way.

- How do you know? - I know.

But how?

Have I ever lied to you?

How should I know?

I'd rather eat dirt.

Would you really do that?

- Do what? - Eat dirt if I told you to.

If you asked, I would.

But would you really ask me to do such a thing?

Are you crazy?

You know I wouldn't.

I know.

Thank you, Agha sahib.

I want them to start building tomorrow.

This should have happened a long time ago.

Absolutely, Sahib! And thank you.

The orphans of Kabul will never forget you.

Somehow

I suspect they will.

You know

the bureaucrats will steal half the money.

Only half?

They've gotten lazy.

Hey, Mister Jaylawni

Conjure up the winds for me

You could have beaten him.

Me? Weren't you watching Omar back there?

He never loses.

If you have the right kite, you'll win the tournament this year.

With the victory of Saur Revolution

for the first time in the history of this country

the political sovereignty and political power have been bestowed

upon the Democratic Party of the People of Afghanistan.

This will get bloody before it gets better.

Usually a safe bet.

They say the Communists are starting brawls at the university.

A student was stabbed last week.

I'm glad Amir's too young to be involved in all this.

Amir?

Trust me, he won't be getting into any brawls.

Sometimes I see him playing on the street with the neighborhood boys.

They push him around, take his toys from him,

but Amir,

he never fights back. Never.

So he's not violent.

You know what happens when the other kids tease him?

Hassan steps in and fends them off.

And when they come home, I say to him,

"How did Hassan get that scrape on his face?"

He says, "He fell down."

There's something missing in that boy.

My friend,

children aren't coloring books.

You don't get to fill them with your favorite colors.

He's not like you. He'll never be like you.

But watch. He'll turn out well.

A boy who won't stand up for himself,

becomes a man who won't stand up for anything.

Amir jan,

may I come in?

I wanted to say goodbye.

I'm going to Pakistan tomorrow.

That's a fine kite.

Hassan ran it down.

The boy's got a gift.

What are you working on?

A story.

May I read it?

It's not very good.

All the same, I'd love to read it.

Thank you, Amir jan.

I'll read it tonight.

He hates me

because I killed her.

My mother.

Amir,

don't ever say such a thing.

Don't ever think it.

But it's true.

No, Amir jan.

It's a dangerous thing, being born.

Dangerous for the mother,

dangerous for the child.

Your father would die for you.

You know that,

don't you?

Amir jan.

- Come on, do it. - It's wrong, Amir agha.

Do you have to be so holy all the time?

Just one?

Just one.

You'd think one day he'd wise up.

You got your allowance?

Yeah, how about we see The Magnificent Seven again?

We deal in lead, friend!

I'm a friend of Harry Luck's. He tells me you're broke.

No. I'm doing this because I'm an eccentric millionaire.

There's a job for six men

watching over a village just south of the border.

How big's the opposition?

Thirty guns.

I admire your notion of fair odds, mister.

I admire your notion of fair odds, mister.

Harry tells me you faced bigger odds in the Travis County War.

- Who's your favorite? - Steve McQueen.

I like Charles Bronson. Maybe someday we'll go to Iran.

Why?

Maybe we'd see him somewhere.

I could get his autograph.

- Charles Bronson's not Iranian. - He's not?

So why does he speak Farsi with an Iranian accent?

Where are you going, fagots?

What do you boys think:

If I paid you to be my friends,

would you really be my friends? Or would you be my servants?

Gee, Assef, if you were paying us,

that would make us your servants!

So I guess Amir has no friends.

We're not bothering you.

Wrong.

You are bothering me.

Afghanistan is the land of the Pashtuns.

We're the real Afghans.

Not this flat-nose Hazara.

His people pollute our homeland. They dirty our blood.

If idiots like you and your father

didn't take these people in, we'd be rid of them.

Please leave us alone, Agha.

Put it down, you motherless Hazara.

Leave us in peace.

Maybe you didn't notice,

but there are three of us, and two of you.

And maybe you didn't notice that I'm the one holding the slingshot.

Forget it.

We'll deal with these fagots later.

- What's this? - Rahim Khan left it for you.

He liked it.

Liked what?

My story!

Well of course he liked it. You tell great stories.

"Bravo," he wrote. Bravo!

Bravo?

Do you know what "bravo" means?

It's Italian for genius.

What's the story about?

It's about a man who finds a magic cup.

And he learns that if he weeps into the cup,

his tears turn to pearls.

He's very poor, you know?

And, at the end of the story, he's sitting on a mountain of pearls

with a bloody knife in his hand and his dead wife in his arms.

- So he killed her? - Yes, Hassan.

So that he'd cry and get rich.

Yes, you're very quick.

What?

Nothing, Amir agha. Are you done with breakfast?

What?

Well, will you permit me to ask a question about the story?

Of course.

Why did the man have to kill his wife?

Because each of his tears becomes a pearl.

Yes, but why couldn't he just smell an onion?

The mullahs at school say drinking is a sin.