The article presents an assessment of historical film production in the Arab world, from the «classical paradigm» of cinematographic activity to the most ambitious Arab documentary carried out, Tahrir 2011, in which the Egyptian revolution is analysed. The first part stresses the role played by Egypt through the decades regarding film production, and the second one deals with the emergence of the so-called new Arab cinema, both in the Maghreb and the Middle East. Likewise, the documentary and non-fiction universe are analysed as an unavoidable field in order to understand this «new cinema», exploring the factors which contain thematic and formal revamp, as well as the changes which have occurred in the last decade regarding the production and visibility of Arab cinema.
Arab cinema, documentary, Maghreb, Mashriq.