Surrounded by yellow papers crackling to the touch, archivists painstakingly catalogue documents and photographs that make up the history of a nation — and the vertebrae of Eritrea’s national archive. It’s a record of one of Africa’s most remarkable rebel armies, documenting the past spirit of optimism that drove their 30-year bitter guerrilla war.

Frustrated avant-garde architects from an architecturally conservative early 20th-century Europe used Asmara, the Eritrean capital, to experiment with radical new designs. They left a legacy valued by Eritreans and by experts worldwide, but lesser known outside this little-visited country.

In the flickering light of Asmara’s Impero Cinema, Eritreans sit gripped by a tale of brave soldiers risking all in love and war. Eritrea’s young film industry is booming. Only 14 years after the Horn of Africa country acquired its independence from Ethiopia, about 60 new films are released every year in the nation’s main Tigrinya language.