Safety concerns delay ‘Kite Runner’ release

The release of the film version of “The Kite Runner” has been delayed six weeks because of fears for the safety of three of the movie’s Afghan child actors.

As violence has escalated in Kabul, Afghanistan, concerns have mounted that the sexual nature of some scenes in the movie could prompt violence against three of the young boys who star in it.

In the film, based on the 2003 best-selling novel by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini, the story’s main character witnesses the rape of his friend but does nothing to stop it.

“The Kite Runner,” originally scheduled to come out Nov. 2, will now be released Dec. 14.

Meanwhile, the three boys – Zekiria Ebrahimi, Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada and Ali Danish Bakhty Ari – are being removed from Kabul.

It’s feared that when the film is released, pirated DVDs could spread in Kabul, where those who are culturally offended could react violently to seeing such a rape scene.

Ahmad Khan is 12. Though the ages for Ali Danish and Zekiria weren’t immediately available, they are of a similar age.

When exactly the boys will be relocated and for how long has not yet been determined, said Megan Colligan, head of marketing at Paramount Vantage.

They may remain in Kabul until the end of their school year on Dec. 6, she said, and potentially could return home in March at the end of their summer vacation.

Paramount Vantage was aware of the possibility of trouble for the young actors and has in recent months sought advice from regional experts and also dispatched an expert to the area to conduct interviews.

“Our position is, we’re not going to do anything that jeopardizes the kids, and we are going to make sure that they’re safe throughout this process,” Colligan said.

Ahmad Jaan Mahmidzada, the father of Ahmad Khan, said he was relieved the studio was taking action.

Mahmidzada worries the film will stir ethnic tensions because it plays on stereotypes of Afghan ethnic groups, pitting a Pashtun bully against a lower-class Hazara boy.

Pashtuns, Afghanistan’s largest ethnic group, and the Hazara minority were among several ethnic-based factions that fought bitterly during the Afghan civil war in the 1990s.