I Want A Kite!

Last night I watched the movie Kiterunner, a movie that I have wanted to see for a few months now due to its being about Afghanistan (to a certain extent), and because I thought it would be similar to Turtles Can Fly, one of my favorite movies. Well, it really wasn't like TCF, probably because it was directed by an American (the person who directed Finding Neverland, which was very well directed). Usually American directors don't do much for me, but I think that the author of the book Kiterunner had a lot to do with the making of the movie and so it maintained a large portion of accuracy and integrity in the movie version. It was a really beautiful storyline (and the two main characters were so cute, I wish I'd had a best friend like they were when I was a kid! My friends were all big jerks though) that portrayed some of the racial/ethnic tensions between the different Afghan ethnicities. The movie, surprisingly enough, was not about the U.S./Afghan conflict, but it did have a lot to do with the Taliban. It was a story about the Soviet Russians invading Afghanistan in the seventies and the Taliban's attempts to 'restore order' afterward, but their initial extremism. The main character, Amir jan, moves to San Fransisco with his father at a young age (I also love the movie because it takes place partly in San Fran/Bay Area) but must travel back to his homeland to save the son of his childhood best friend. Okay, I won't say anything more because I don't want to be a spoiler...but I would definitely suggest this movie if you want to learn a little bit about recent Afghan history and be infused with warm-fuzzies (the movie had the best ending I've seen in a long time).

I also read a really amazing book (written by a Californianer) about Cleveland. It is called Seedfolks. Seedfolks is the story of a small courtyard dump that is transformed into a community garden, starting with one young Vietnamese girl who wants to plant bean plants to honor the father she never knew. Through this act, people from many different backgrounds are brought together in a way that they normally would never come together. One of my new favorite books.