Casting call

Last week, this NYTimes article on the release of The Kite Runner kind of blew me away. If you're unfamiliar with the story, and not inclined to link to the article, here's a quick synopsis: The movie's director, Marc Forster (Finding Neverland) didn't "connect" with any of the child actors he auditioned from Afghan communities in California, Toronto, and The Hague. So, he went to Kabul and cast a couple kids from there to star in the film, which deals with ethnic tension, a childhood friendship between two boys -- one Pashtun and one Hazara -- and the rise of the Taliban. It also features a scenes in which one of the boys, a Hazara, is raped by a Pashtun bully. The families of the two boys who star in the film are now saying that were lied to and mistreated by the filmmakers, and they fear the release of the film, with its rape scene, may put their sons in danger.

Reading the article, the filmmakers come across as incredibly naive. While I'm sure they meant well enough, perhaps they should have thought a bit more about casting children from a politically unstable nation in a movie that deals explicitly with ethnic tensions. A few quotes from the article where the film peeps sound especially idiotic:

Finally, when Ms. Dowd [casting director] went to Kabul in May 2006, she discovered her stars. “There was such innocence to them, despite all they’d lived through,” she said.

and this

Mr. Forster emphasized that casting Afghan boys did not seem risky at the time; local filmmakers even encouraged him, he said: “You really felt it was safe there, a democratic process was happening, and stability, and a new beginning.”

Now, this being May of 2006, you would think the filmmakers would have at least thought about the protests and the 16 people killed in February of 2006 as a result of the controversy surrounding the Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad. A different situation for sure, but one that perhaps should have been at least taken into consideration before casting two boys from a country that is 99% muslim in a movie that has a rape scene between two boys from rival ethnic groups.

Still, it sounds like the movie peeps are now doing their best to deal with this "tricky situation." They're arranging for the boys and their families to relocate to the U.A.E., where they can get refugee status:

Those involved say that the studio doesn’t want to be taken advantage of, but that it could accept responsibility for the boys’ living expenses until they reach adulthood, a cost some estimated at up to $500,000. The families, of course, must first agree to the plan.

Wow, $500,000 x 2 could really cut into those opening weekend grosses, she blogged cynically.

Cynicism aside, I think this piece is worth taking a look at as a really interesting piece of arts reporting, dealing with a situation that raises some very complex issues.

Lesson: If you're a filmmaker casting a potentially politically charged film set in an unstable country, and you just have to cast children native to that unstable country because they have an amazing "innocence" despite having their living in a war-torn country, you may have to pay for them and their families to uproot their lives before you can release your movie.