Nothing about the bullet-scarred building-one of hundreds in central Kabul-indicates the astonishing story that unfolded within the walls of Afghan Film.
It was here that an impassioned clique of filmmakers, often working across enemy lines, gave birth to a progressive national cinema in one of the most underdeveloped societies on Earth. And it was here, in an episode worthy of a spy thriller, that a clandestine network of cinephiles conspired to protect this precious legacy from the iconoclastic fanatics who destroyed the great Buddhas of Bamiyan.