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Basir is an Afghan professional Afghan fighter kite trainer who lives in Los Angeles California. If you are unfamiliar with Basir’s name, there is a good chance you might be familiar with some of his most interesting work and in his incredible kite making skills.
Basir Beria was the kite master and trainer for the movie “The Kite Runner” adapted from the 2004 best selling novel of Khalid Hussaini and produced by Hollywood Dreamworks Pictures. However, Basir was not only responsible for building the kites for the movie; he was also in charge of training the actors and the Chinese children how to fly the kite.
Beria grew up in a red-stone mansion in the Kabul suburb of Karte Parwan, surrounded by thousands of grapevines owned by his family. Like other Afghan kids, Basir also learnt the kite skills when he was a little boy. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, Basir was imprisoned for months tortured and shocked in prison. After one and half years, he got released and the next day he went to peshawer where he got a passport an flew to Germany. After several years living in Germany, Basir decided to head towards the United States.
In early 2006 Basir got a call on his cellphone from a hollywood movie producer and was asked if they could see him fly his kites. On a Sunday afternoon, the director, Marc Foster, along with a dozen producers and crew members met Beria at Balboa Lake, where Afghan and Pakistani kite fighters regularly competed. They watched Beria fly his kites.
He explained how they moved the kite with just one string, how they were made, how they cut one another. After a few hours of watching the kite flying, the filmmakers offered him the job as "kite master" on the set in western China. Beria happily accepted the offer, even though he
'd had to quit his job at the Holiday Inn. This was his big
moment to strike. He flew to the city of Kashgar in Western China with 100 of his kites. For 15 weeks, he taught more than 150 local children how to fly the kites and got involved in every detail of the kite-flying scenes.
Despite his kite making skills, Basir is also a talented designer artist who designes and draws beautiful art pieces on his handmade kites. In order to get to know his art works here are some of his art pieces below.
If you would like to know more about his arts if you have project and interedted to purchase his beautiful art work, please contact me via email and I will try to assist you on your project. For more info about Afghanistan's culture and tradition, visit: http://www.afghanistan-culture.com/ .