Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” won the Pulitzer Prize, but it’s likely the voters read it while holding a hand over their eyes and peering through a gap in two fingers. While it is a novel that explores the unwavering bond between a father and son, there are chilling and gruesome aspects that make a beautifully written tale somewhat cringeworthy.

In a post-apocalyptic world, a man and his son navigate a god-forsaken landscape, filled with charred foliage, abandoned towns and bands of marauding cannibals. When it came out in 2006, it earned immediate distinction as the pick-it-up, put-it-down, pick-it-up again book of the year.

So how will the filmmakers who adapted it into a major motion picture go about selling such bleak fare to a holiday audience?

“I think generally you have to separate the film from the marketing of the film,” said Robert Levin, who teaches movie marketing at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and has previously served as head of marketing for Disney, Sony and MGM.

“The marketer’s task is to create that awareness and interest which makes people choose that film that they want to see, and in this environment to see it quickly so it can build word of mouth. Usually what it comes down to, when it comes to the grimness that we’re talking about, is very often not exposed in a two-and-a-half minute trailer or a 30-second television commercial.

“In film, a lot of times people can die of cancer, but you would never know it from the marketing materials.”

Levin could not be too specific in discussing the campaign for “The Road” — and The Weinstein Company, which is releasing the film, did not respond to requests to discuss the marketing of the film — but he said from what he has seen, the more positive and thus sellable aspects of the film are being emphasized.

“If you look at the trailer for ‘The Road,’ you suspect somehow there is a father protecting his son, with evil going on around them,” he said. “For the most part, they try to do the best job of presenting a film without presenting hurdles to seeing it.”

Isaac Leicht is now a consultant who served as director of international marketing for The Weinstein Company and in post-production for Miramax. He said if the film is good, it goes a long way toward marketing it, regardless of the subject matter.

“The darkness of the film, the dark aspects of the story, are all relative,” he said. “If the movie is good enough and the relationships are good enough, then you don’t really have a problem. If you market a movie with dark subject matter and it’s not a good movie, then it’s in trouble.”

Leicht pointed out that moviegoers need assurances that they’re paying to see a film that’s worth their hard-earned money. “Things like reviews really help,” he said. “It helps to reassure audiences that a dark-looking film is still a great film.”

Generally, the reviews for the film version of “The Road” — starring Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee and directed by John Hillcoat (“The Proposition”) — have been largely positive. It currently rates 78 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Government, U.S. trainers missed warning signs, say international officials

A German soldier prepares to join a patrol in a mountainous region east of Kunduz, Afghanistan, in September.

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan - Far from the heartland of the Taliban insurgency in the south, this once peaceful northern province was one place American and Afghan officials thought they did not have to worry about.

Afghan officials cut the police force here by a third two years ago and again earlier this year. Security was left to a few thousand German peacekeepers. Only one Afghan logistics battalion was stationed here.

But over the last two years the Taliban have steadily staged a resurgence in Kunduz, where they now threaten a vital NATO supply line and employ more sophisticated tactics. In November, residents listened to air raids by NATO forces for five consecutive nights, the first heavy fighting since the Taliban were overthrown eight years ago.

The turnabout vividly demonstrates how security has broken down even in unexpected parts of Afghanistan. It also points to the hard choices facing American, NATO and Afghan officials even if President Obama decides to send more soldiers to Afghanistan, as he is expected to announce next week.

Even under the most generous deployments now under consideration, relatively few additional troops are expected in the north; most will be directed to the heartland of the Taliban resistance in the south and east.

Failure to remain vigilant
Afghan and international officials say security never had to deteriorate so badly here. The Taliban were a scattered and defeated force in northern Afghanistan, long home to the strongest anti-Taliban resistance, the Northern Alliance.

But the government, and American military trainers, failed to remain vigilant to signs of Taliban encroachment, and reduced deployments in the northern provinces in order to bolster other, more volatile regions.

The decisions created vulnerabilities as Kunduz became a target with the opening of a new logistics route here for NATO supplies from Russia and Central Asia, over an American-financed bridge that opened in 2007. The route is supposed to serve as a strategic alternative to the treacherous passage through Pakistan, which is regularly attacked by Taliban militants.

Now, the Taliban have re-emerged with such force that during the presidential election in August, police officers were fending off attacks on the outskirts of the city of Kunduz, and militants were poised to overrun the center, officials said.

“The Taliban were at the door of the city; the people thought the government was at an end,” said a senior security official, who asked not to be named because of the nature of his work.

Taliban reappears
Since then, the threat has been somewhat contained after an operation by NATO and Afghan forces, but the province remains at risk.

Residents of Kunduz said they noticed that the Taliban reappeared in numbers in the region in the spring of last year.

At just that time, under pressure from the American military in charge of training the Afghan security forces, the government of President Hamid Karzai reduced the number of police officers in Kunduz to just 1,000 from 1,500, officials said. Then, earlier this year, the Interior Ministry ordered 200 police officers from every northern province to help secure the capital, Kabul, which was suffering increasingly serious attacks from insurgents.

Europe stocks begin to climb back but Asia falls sharply amid new concerns

A money trader work at the Foreign Exchange Market in Tokyo, Japan, on Friday.

LONDON - European stock markets regained their poise Friday but Asia fell sharply as investors weighed the impact that Dubai’s trouble with $60 billion in debt would have on the global financial and economic recovery.

Market confidence has been hit hard by Wednesday’s news that Dubai World, a government investment company, has asked creditors if it can postpone its forthcoming payments until May. That stoked fears, mainly in Europe on Thursday, of a potential default and contagion around the global financial system, particularly in emerging markets.

Asian stocks were particularly badly hit as they played catch-up following the big losses in Europe in the previous session. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 1,075.91 points, or 4.8 percent, lower at 21,134.50, while South Korea’s benchmark plummeted 4.7 percent to 1,524.50In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 14.18 points, or 0.3 percent, at 5,179.95, while Germany’s DAX fell 13.08 points, or 0.2 percent, to 5,601.09. The CAC-40 in France was 15.02 points, or 0.4 percent, lower at 3,664.21. On Thursday, Europe’s main indexes slid over 3 percent, with banks, especially those thought to have exposure to Dubai such as Barclays PLC, HSBC PLC and Standard Chartered PLC, particularly badly hit.

‘A blow’
All eyes in Europe will be on Wall Street, which was closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving Holiday. Expectations are that it will open down but that the selling won’t turn into a rout — Dow futures were down 236 points, or 2.3 percent, at 10,206 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures slid 31.1 points, or 2.8 percent, at 1,077.80.

“It is likely to take at least a few days before the implications of the impact of a possible default from Dubai are properly digested but for the present it seems that the market is seeing this negative news as a blow to the global recovery but not one that will push it off course,” said Jane Foley, research director at Forex.com.

Across all markets, there is a growing awareness that investors may use the upcoming year-end to lock-in whatever profits have been made over the last 12 months.

Film director Roman Polanski will not be released from prison until Monday at the earliest, the Swiss justice ministry has confirmed.

Officials say arrangements for his house arrest at his chalet in the Swiss Alps will not be in place before then.

The 76-year-old has been granted bail after being arrested in September.

He has been wanted in the US since fleeing the country in 1978 after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with an underage girl.

The Swiss Federal Criminal Court granted the Oscar-winning director $4.5m (£2.7m) bail, pending proceedings for his possible extradition to the US.

He was ordered to surrender his passport and be fitted with an electronic bracelet that will activate if he attempts to abscond from his chalet in the ski resort of Gstaad.

The director of films such as Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown and The Pianist was arrested after travelling to Zurich on 26 September to pick up a lifetime achievement award.

Polanski was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl after plying her with champagne and a sedative during a modelling shoot in 1977.

He was initially indicted on six counts, including rape by use of drugs, child molesting and sodomy, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of unlawful sexual intercourse.

Polanski fled the US in February 1978 on the day he was to be sentenced, and has lived in France since then.

Nine nations in the Amazon region have called on rich countries to provide poorer nations with the funds to preserve forests.

The nations, meeting in Manaus, Brazil, also discussed supporting a 40% reduction in global emissions by 2020.

The meeting comes shortly before the key global summit on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Amazon nations agreed on broad principles rather than concrete steps, correspondents said.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva chaired the meeting of delegates from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela and Surinam, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy representing French Guiana.

Slowing deforestation

Presidents Sarkozy and Lula said richer nations must increase their aid to help the poorer countries fight global warming.

“The poor need to be supported without any country giving up its sovereignty,” President Lula said.

The BBC’s Paulo Cabral reports from Manaus that for the past few days diplomats have been negotiating a common position to be presented by the Amazon countries and France at the conference in Copenhagen.

The common statement agreed in Brazil establishes broad principles rather than fresh or concrete proposals, he adds.

He says most of the presidents invited did not come to Manaus, though diplomats say that the ministers and ambassadors sent in their place were in a position to close a deal.

Brazil proposed fighting deforestation in the Amazon basin with financial backing from wealthy nations.

“Let no gringo [foreigner] ask us to let an Amazonian starve to death under a tree,” Mr Lula said in a speech ahead of the meeting.

“We want to preserve [the forests], but [other countries] have to pay for that preservation.”

At the summit, the Brazilian government presented its efforts to reduce destruction in the Amazon as a key part of its strategy to combat climate change.

Earlier this month, Brazil’s government said the rate of deforestation in the Amazon had dropped by 45% - and was the lowest on record since monitoring began 21 years ago.

It said that just over 7,000 sq km (2,700 square miles) had been destroyed between July 2008 and August 2009. Brazil is seeking an 80% reduction in the deforestation rate by 2020.

The environmental group Greenpeace has welcomed the latest drop but says there is still too much destruction in the rainforest.

Earlier this month, Brazil said it aimed to cut its carbon emissions by at least 36% below 1990 levels by 2020.