The Kite Runner

"There is a way to be good again."

2007 2h 8m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

🍅

65%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

7.6

IMDB

★7.3TMDB · 1,287🍅65%Rotten Tomatoes●61Metacritic★7.6IMDB · 84,342

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

After spending years in California, Amir returns to his homeland in Afghanistan to help his old friend Hassan, whose son is in trouble.

“There is a way to be good again.”

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Cast

Khalid Abdalla
Amir
Homayoun Ershadi
Baba
Shaun Toub
Rahim Kahn
Atossa Leoni
Soraya
Saïd Taghmaoui
Farid
Ahmad Khan Mahmoodzada
Young Hassan
Elham Ehsas
Young Assef
Mustafa Haidari
Party Worker

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Marc Forster
Writers: David Benioff
Languages: English, Portuguese, Pushto, Russian, Urdu
Countries: China, United Kingdom, United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 3.7× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 19 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 5 languages: English, Portuguese, Pushto, Russian, Urdu.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: China, United Kingdom, United States of America.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Marc Forster, shot by Roberto Schaefer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alberto Iglesias. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Matt Chessé shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Khalid Abdalla and Homayoun Ershadi and Shaun Toub carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Marc Forster directs. Roberto Schaefer behind the camera. Alberto Iglesias scores. Matt Chessé cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in China, United Kingdom, United States of America. Dialogue in English, Portuguese, Pushto, Russian, Urdu.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Made its money back 3.7× over at the box office.
2Released 19 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 5 languages: English, Portuguese, Pushto, Russian, Urdu.
4International production across 3 countries: China, United Kingdom, United States of America.
5Directed by Marc Forster, shot by Roberto Schaefer. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Alberto Iglesias. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Matt Chessé shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8Khalid Abdalla and Homayoun Ershadi and Shaun Toub carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "There is a way to be good again.".
10IMDB entry: tt0419887 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Classified under 9 themes, including "1970s", "afghanistan", "cowardice", "hang gliding".

The technical file

Cinematography: Roberto Schaefer
Original score: Alberto Iglesias
Editing: Matt Chessé
Sound: Lora Hirschberg
Runtime: 128 min · 2h 8m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $20,000,000
Box office: $73,276,047
Return: 366% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Kite Runner (2007)
Rotten Tomatoes: 65% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 61/100
IMDB rating: 7.6/10 · 84,342 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

Nominated for 1 Oscar. 6 wins & 25 nominations total

Satellite Award for Best Original Score
National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Marc Forster

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

honeybee <32026-08-30
★ 6/10
For someone like me who has trouble visualizing what I read, this was helpful for me to imagine the book's setting. Other than that, there's not really much there. The movie took all the major plot points and put them one after the other, so I suppose it could be a more interesting alternative to Spark Notes, though I honestly think Spark Notes does a better job. It spent no time developing the characters and their relationships, thus failing to make me care about and understand them. There was also a severe lack of socio-political context, another large part of the characters' identities and actions. This lackluster movie isn't an inherently bad reflection on the writer/director,\* more a compliment to The Kite Runner author Khaled Hosseini's writing. So much of the book is internal monologue, providing little dialogue for a screenwriter to take directly, and each line feels important and symbolic. This is challenging to adapt for the screen. I feel that most would struggle similarly, and, all in all, I believe The Kite Runner is best left as a book. If you haven't read The Kite Runner yet, please please please do! It deals with a lot of heavy themes, so I understand it's not for everyone, but, for me, the discomfort was worthwhile, as it's a truly amazing and impactful book. I found myself several times having to put the book down to let Hosseini's writing sit with me, and I don't think I'll ever forget the beauty and sadness of The Kite Runner. \*I, for some reason, struggled greatly with finding a spot for this idea, so I'm putting it here. One choice I really loved was the decision to include Farsi. So many movies have characters of different nationalities speak English with their language's accent as an easy way out (ex: a Russian speaking to other Russians in English with a Russian accent). In The Kite Runner, however, any scene where Farsi would have been spoken is actually said in Farsi with English subtitles. I've never seen another movie do this consistently, only one or two scenes, and this choice made it feel more authentic. (3/5, originally reviewed 2/24/25)

Production companies