Controversy erupts over director Marc Forster`s latest film

08-Oct-2007 • Bond News

"The Kite Runner" was written in 2003 by Afghan-American, Khaled Hosseini, and the book spans the years from the pre-war Kabul of the 1970s to the brutality of the Taliban era, reports Monsters And Critics.

The Hosseini book was adapted for the screen by David Benioff, and is directed by Marc Forster. It deals with poignant themes such as exile, a son's longing to please his father and friendship and betrayal between two boys, the novel's central characters.

Now the family of the boy actors involved in a controversial film about Afghanistan say that the movie's distributors are evacuating them from the country.

The family says that the makers of "The Kite Runner" believe the measure is necessary for their own safety.

The New York Times newspaper says Paramount Vantage is arranging for three families to go and live abroad, and is delaying the film's release until December according to CNN.

It has run into controversy in Afghanistan, where most of it is set.

That is because of unforeseen controversy over its central scene, the rape of a boy who is Amir the narrator's best friend and his servant by a psychopathic bully.

Ahmad Jaan Mahmidzada, whose son Ahmad Khan plays Hassan the raped servant, confirmed to the BBC that his family is leaving later this month for the United Arab Emirates, with all expenses paid by Paramount.

He would not elaborate further.

Mahmidzada told the BBC he "feared a violent reaction in Afghanistan to The Kite Runner's rape scene, in which Hassan, who comes from the subjugated Hazara ethnic group, is raped by an older bully from the dominant Pashtuns."

"I'm worried people from my tribe will turn against me, even cut my throat and kill me," he said to the BBC.

With other Afghans saying they fear reprisals too, Paramount Vantage has, according to the New York Times, arranged for three families to move to the UAE and will fund the boys' schooling for several years and find jobs for their guardians.

The Times report that after studio's consultants visited Kabul and were widely told the boys should be evacuated, one of Paramount's lawyers said that if they were being overly cautious, "that's OK".

Several news outlets report there has been a controversy about the filming, with the children and their families saying they were not warned about the rape scene in advance.

The producers deny this and insist they were.

Marc Forster is attached to direct the 22nd James Bond movie with Daniel Craig.