Back in September, when I attended a sneak preview of The Kite Runner, I noted a media blip about how the family of one of the child actors starring in the film was claiming that great shame would fall upon them if their fellow Afghani citizens saw the scene where the protagonist's childhood pal gets raped by a bunch of thugs because, as the father told reporters, "the people of Afghanistan do not understand that it's only acting or playing a role in a film. They think it has actually happened."

I pointed out at the time that I thought the family might be angling for a one-way ticket out of Afghanistan, and, lo and behold, in an interview with the Vulture blog, Khaled Hosseini tells New York very, very obliquely, "the studio... took steps to make sure the kids were out of Afghanistan before the film is released." Although the interview doesn't really go into why; interviewer Bilge Ebiri just notes vague, unspecified "threats" to their safety. Maybe he was just trying to maintain suspense for whoever it is that hasn't actually read the novel yet.