"The Kite Runner" is not about Afghanistan kids flying kites; instead it is a harrowing story brought to life by 007's next director, Marc Forster. Hopefully, "The Kite Runner" foreshadows what we are in store for with the next installment of the 007 franchise. Forster can handle complex characters without pounding the audience over the head with a message. He has made no concessions to what Hollywood thinks we can handle. "The Kite Runner," with no stars and subtitles for two-thirds of the film, is a brilliant, must-see film.

The story begins in 1978 with two 12-year-old boys, Amir (Zekeria Ebrahimi) and Hassan (Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada). Yet the two friends come from very different economic and social classes: Amir's father Baba (Homayoun Ershadi) is an aristocratic scholar and pundit; Hassan's father Ali (Nabi Tanha) has worked as a servant for Amir's family for 40 years.

Ali and Hassan live in Baba's large compound and while Baba treats the boys equally, Amir feels his father hates him for his mother's death in childbirth. Hassan is also motherless but is, emotionally and mentally, the stronger of the two. Both boys love the national sport of kite flying and it is the only way that Amir feels he can win his father's admiration since Baba was a champion when he was a boy.

Hassan is Amir's loyal friend and companion in a society that has strict class codes. In another era Hassan would have been a prince's "whipping boy."

After Amir wins the kite competition and Hassan goes off to fetch the prized kite, he is assaulted by higher-status boys. Amir watches the sexual attack but does not come to his friend's aid. To remove his shame – he knows his father believes he is indeed a spineless coward and would have condemned his lack of heroism – he must get rid of Hassan and thus ignites a tragic tale.

The story then moves forward to the Soviet Union's ten year occupation of Afghanistan. Baba must escape since he is an outspoken political critic.

Years later, settled in California among other Afghan expatriates, Baba now works at a gas station and Amir (Khalid Abdalla) is a community college graduate who wants to be a writer. He falls in love with the daughter of a former Afghan general and he finds out that he is still bound by the social dynamics of his former country.

Amir marries and does become a successful writer. As his book tour is about to begin he gets a call from a family friend who asks him to return home, now controlled by the Taliban. The story twists again, with the harrowing Taliban ruling the country with public executions in soccer stadiums and the beard-patrol scouring the streets for clean-shaven men.

Why the Taliban came to power and why the Afghan people supported them is not addressed. After the oppressive Soviet occupation and then civil war, Afghans saw the deeply religious Taliban as a solution against widespread corruption and ruthless warlords. The Taliban re-united the country, restored peace, and renewed commerce. However, their success was brought about through the institution of a very strict interpretation of Sharia, Islamic law.

Not shown in "The Kite Runner" was the Taliban's treatment of women. Girls were forbidden to go to school, women were barred from working outside the home and forced to wear the burka. Women were prohibited from leaving their home without a male relative—those that did so risked being beaten, even shot, by officers of the "ministry for the protection of virtue and prevention of vice." A woman caught wearing fingernail polish may have had her fingertips chopped off.

In 2000 the Taliban cracked down on cultivation of opium production by two-thirds. Unfortunately, the crackdown on opium also abruptly deprived thousands of Afghans of their only source of income. I recently saw a National Geographic Channel program, "Explorer: Heroin Crisis" stating that with the end of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the country now accounts for 93 per cent of the world's opium production, the raw ingredients for heroin. Afghanistan produces 30% more opium than the world uses.

In October, 2001, the U.S. led an invasion of Afghanistan and supposedly got rid of the Taliban.

Yet, as of 2007, the Taliban is coming back! Civilian deaths caused by the bombing campaigns of international troops are linked to the resurgence of the Taliban.

What Forster has accomplished, along with screenwriter David Benioff, is to present a strong political statement without making a political film. "The Kite Runner" is a film that makes a lasting impression due to the emotional depth of the characters.