It is well known that making a mere 17K for a film is disgraceful and pathetic. These greedy selfish Hollywood execs knew that the film would be popular (with 3 mil books sold) how could they not pay these boys at least livable wages!!! Taking advantage of children from third world countries is unjust and completely fulfills the stereotypes of power
Did the director, authors and producers consider the negative consequesnces of using the actors who now suffer displacement and other hardships? All this could have been avoided by using actors from another region. The director, writer and producers should turn over all monies from the movie to a an international child welfare organization and shoulduse their personal funds to support this family. In the meantime, we should all boycott this film and other like it, that have this type of disregard for even unintentional negative impacts that put minors in danger. In this case, I can see no scenario where informed consent couldhev been given, since the actors are minors. Ask your friendsto boycott this film.
I don't care how beautiful this film is supposed to be, they have taken advantage of these boys, and Paramount Pictures needs to make the lives of these families worth living from here on.
I am furious that these boys and their families were taken advantage of by a huge film maker like this, who probably sees themself as informing the world of the plight of these people. They have ruined their lives in their country and should be held responsible for making them whole again. I would support a boycott of all of their movies if they do not do right by these families.
What is going on in the lives of these young boys is just ridiculous, and it didn't even need to happen. Just the fact that they weren't even informed of the rape scene, even of the whole book for that matter, is unprofessional. No matter what age or background, an actor should be given a script or even a brief plotline of the movie. It's as simple as that, it happens all the time! I don't see why these boys were excluded from this, but now Columbia will have to learn from their mistakes. I'm Afghan myself, and I know that if Afghans back home see this movie, they will believe that it's real. You can convince a handful of people, but not a whole country. These children will face many horrible things, and for their well being, I believe that the best thing that would happen for them is maybe to have their families live in the states. Or basically just taken out of Afghanistan. Because rape scene or no rape scene, there's still a lot of tension between Hazaras and Pashtuns in Afghanistan, so this movie might bring out the worst between them...
It was very inconsiderate, irresponsible and unprofessional of Paramount to make the boys sign the contract before showing them the script. I really hope they pay for any inconvenience the boys may face.
Without these boys' wonderful performance, there is no such powerful movie. Time to do some creative accounting - Paramount Studios! At least you could bringing them out safe. Everyone has a chance to be good, you too!
This is atrocious exploitation. Give these boys $5,000,000 for what they have been through. I cannot believe Paramount would stoop so low. And Khaled Hosseini, I am waiting to see what you have to say about this...I am boycotting this movie. I don't need to give you guys money for child exploitation.
They truly deserve the best. It is so unfair to pay them so little compared to how much our child actors make, especially since this is a film made by the U.S. film industry.
Having read the book, I agree the rape scene is an integral part of the story and must therefore be an integral part of the movie. However, powerful movie makers should take cultural sensitivities into account when plucking child actors from obscurity to make movies. One of the outrageous aspects of this story is that the US immigration authorities have reportedly refused entry visas to the US for Zakeria and Ahmad for The Kite Runner premiere. What an injustice. Let's petition them too!
I find the very idea that the rape scene was not thoroughly discussed with the parents and the young actors unfathomable. If this was truly neglected as described, the filmmakers must secure the safety of these children and their families. But something about the entire setup seems unbelievable to me. I realize local libraries might not be abundant in rubble-strewn Kabul, but for no one to inform any of the family or actors of this prior to the filming of this pivotal scene is almost impossible to fathom.
