Basir Beria

In 2006, Afghanistan-to-Los-Angeles transplant Basir Beria got a call from producers at Dreamworks Pictures. They wanted to see him fly kites. After a demonstration of his kite-fighting prowess, he was hired as the kite crafter on location in China for the film The Kite Runner. Raised in a Kabul suburb, Beria fled Afghanistan during the Soviet Union’s occupation after being imprisoned and tortured. He made his first kites as a child, becoming an expert at the intricate art of kite-fighting and then bringing the tradition with him to the United States.