Meet Salim Shaheen, the Ed Wood of Afghanistan, and the most prolific writer/actor/director you’ve never heard of.

'You have Hollywood. You have Bollywood. And in Afghanistan you have Nothingwood,' shares Salim Shaheen. With 111 films to his name – starring himself, his friends and his family – he would know. He can’t read or write, but he’s forged a career making movies cheap, fast, out of nothing, and often with real guns, ammunition and chicken blood. And it’s working for him; self-distributing his features, his fans are many, mobbing him on the streets wherever he goes.

As first-time documentarian Sonia Kronlund observes his efforts, Shaheen is shooting four films at once – that’s the kind of eccentric, impassioned character he is, which Nothingwood captures with joyous aplomb. Contrasting his free-wheeling efforts with Afghanistan’s climate of violence, the end result not only chronicles a man following his dreams, but the hope and escape his movies bring to his adoring audience.

'The message of this touching, rousing, truly funny film is that cinema can quite literally save your life; nothing could be more vital.' – Pajiba