The low-budget, indie drama “Black Kite” charts five decades of political turmoil in Afghanistan through the eyes of a hapless kite maker, the middle generation of a sadly doomed dynasty.
More well-intentioned than accomplished, this second feature from Kabul-born, Canadian helmer Tarique Qayumi suffers in comparison to “The Kite Runner,” Marc Foster’s richly detailed screen translation of Khaled Hosseini’s beloved bestseller.
But despite its shortcomings of script and performance, the film has a certain middlebrow festival appeal, considering its exotic locations and winsome child players.
Certainly, multihyphenate Qayumi deserves credit for his deft use of archival footage and animation, which provide useful context and historical background.The heavy-handed opening moments are a bit of a turn-off, and work against audience identification, as we see that things won’t end well for the film’s protagonist, Arian (sober Haji Gul, who can’t make his ingenuous character credible).
Bloody and bowed, he is sentenced
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