AllMovie

In the wake of the Taliban's call for the destruction of all non-Islamic-related statues in February of 2001, the world was robbed of two of its most remarkable landmarks. Despite international outrage, two stone Buddhas -- one measuring 53 meters tall -- were hastily turned to rubble by Islamic fundamentalists. In the aftermath, Swiss filmmaker Christian Frei ventures to Afghanistan's Bamiyan valley in an effort to comprehend the destruction while studying the history of the legendary statues and questioning how anger combined with hypocrisy failed to save two of the planet's most treasured landmarks.