Bamyan (Persian: بامیان Bāmyān‎), also spelled Bamiyan and Bamian, at an altitude of about 9,200 feet (2,800 m) and with a population of about 61,863, is the largest town in the region of Hazarajat in central Afghanistan and the capital of Bamyan Province. It lies approximately 240 kilometres north-west of Kabul, the national capital. Bamyan was the site of an early Hindu–Buddhist monastery from which Bamyan takes its name (Sanskrit varmayana, "coloured"). Many statues of Buddha are carved into the sides of cliffs facing Bamyan city. In 2008, Bamyan was found to be the home of some of the world's oldest oil paintings.

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, the town was at the crossroads between the East and West when all trade between China and the Middle East passed through it. The Hunas made it their capital in the 5th century. Because of the cliff of the Buddhas, the ruins of the Monk's caves, Shar-i-Gholghola ('City of Sighs', the ruins of an ancient city destroyed by Genghis Khan), and its local scenery, it is one of the most visited places in Afghanistan. The Shar-i-Zohak mound ten miles south of the valley is the site of a citadel that guarded the city, and the ruins of an acropolis could be found there as recently as the 1990s.

Christian Frei (born 1959 in Schönenwerd, Solothurn) is a Swiss filmmaker and film producer. He is one of the most successful documentary film directors worldwide and mostly known for his films War Photographer (2001), The Giant Buddhas (2005) and Space Tourists (2009). Since 2006, Christian Frei has been an associate lecturer on Reflection Competence at the renowned University of St. Gallen. From 2006 to 2009 he was president of the “Documentary Film Commission” for the film section of the Swiss Ministry of Culture. Since August 2010 he is president of the Swiss Film Academy.

From the very start of his career, Christian Frei established a reputation as an exacting documentarist, with a perfect grasp of his subjects. He follows his protagonists closely, always in search of authentic moments and always keeping the whole picture in mind. His films are considered to be humanistic and universal, as much as subtle and insistent. "What makes these films so extraordinary? They are authentic moments that endure. Christian Frei takes us along a perimeter that both divides and unites individuals and cultures: the tectonics of humanity."