The kite maker of Kabul

Another thing that has touched me today is the story of Noor Agha, a kite maker in Kabul, Afghanistan who's just become the subject of an upcoming movie called The Kite Runner. It was sad to read how this man had to struggle and ultimately flee across the border when the Taliban took over and banned kite flying in the country. His determination to continue making kites is however proof of his dedication to his craft--recalling to mind a poor old Chinese lady whose paper-cutting art was featured on the Discovery Channel a few years ago in a documentary called Cutting Through. I do hope the kite maker gets to pass on his skills and that someone in turn will be willing to learn and continue his legacy. Rare talent like his--and that of the paper cutter--is something the world can't afford to lose like so many old traditions disappearing due to modernization and indifference.

At the same time, I hope the movie will be shown here. But I have doubts about that since I have noticed that foreign-language movies (like the French hit Le Papillon, Vietnam's The Green Papaya or Iran's Children of Heaven) or even good English-language movies are rarely shown here. If The Kite Runner ever makes it to the theatre screens here, I expect that it will suffer the same fate as The Truman Show or the Wallace and Gromit movie. That is, it will be pulled out after a only a week of showing due to a lack of audience. What a pity. It seems people here prefer the local movie industry's brainless boy-meets-girl movies, stupid tearjerkers or silly comedies that are so popular here. Yeah, believe it or not, these are the kinds of movies that people here rave about and are entries to the annual film festival here. Oh well, I guess they don't have much of a choice; they have to give those awards to somebody after all.