Saturday night is date night at our house. Sometimes we go to dinner alone, dinner with another couple(s), or to a movie. When the kids were babies, all we could muster was the movie, sitting, eating all the popcorn and candy we could. But still we held hands or I put my head on John’s shoulder and tried to imagine that when the kids left for college, that this would feel like growing old together. The other night was the Kite Runner, the film adaptation of the bestseller by Khaled Hosseini.

The Kite Runner is told in English and Dari, and it is set in Afganistan and America. The story is of two boyhood friends, a rich boy and his servant’s son. A terrible tragedy occurs of bullies raping Hassan and Amir witnessing the event in silence and shame. The relationship falls apart, and Amir orchestrates Hassan and his father’s dismissal from the house. The Russians invade Afghanistan and Amir and his father emigrate to America.

The movie opens and closes in modern day in which Amir is an adult and finds out that Hassan has been killed and his son has been taken by the Taliban. Amir goes back to Afghanistan to the right the wrong of his childhood, and raise Hassan’s son as his own. In the process, Amir finds out that he and Hassan were blood brothers because of an affair of his father.

The Kite Runner is photographically beautiful and the 2 languages weave together like music. It was a wonderfully told story, and allowed the movie viewer to step into the idyllic early Afghanistan, and the war torn later place. Movies help to walk inside another person’s shoes. It inspired me me as an International Editor to share as many stories as there are storytellers. The world is made up of stories and storytellers. Some of them are sitting right in your own living room. Tell each other every word.

Blessings and good reading, Cat Wayland, cat@internationalfamilymag.com, www.internationalfamilymag.com

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