PARAMOUNT PICTURES - DID PARAMOUNT DO ENOUGH TO PROTECT KIDS IN KITE RUNNER ?

DID PARAMOUNT DO ENOUGH TO PROTECT KIDS IN KITE RUNNER ?

Paramount Pictures is being criticized for the way it has dealt with the Afghan children who appeared in director Marc Forster's critically praised film The Kite Runner . Although the studio located four of the young actors and their families or guardians to Dubai for their safety before the movie was released, at least one, 12-year-old Zakria Ebrahimi, who stars in the film, has been forced to return but has become the target of gangs who say that the film denigrates the Afghan culture, according to a report broadcast Wednesday by National Public Radio. (Although banned in Afghanistan, the movie has been distributed on pirated DVDs.) The boy's guardian and aunt, Waheeda Ebrahimi told NPR that she and Zakria had to leave Dubai because their passports had expired and that the small stipends and $400-a-month job she was offered were not enough to support her family. In Kabul, she said, schoolmates threatened to kill Zakria for appearing in the movie and a gang attempted to force their way into her home. Rich Klein, whose consulting firm was hired by Paramount to relocate the families of the stars, told NPR, "I don't think anybody is happy with the fact that ... Zakria is not doing well." However, he added that his family needs to be realistic about what Paramount can do for them.

03/07/2008