The Magic Past, documentary film by Egyptian director Thabet Madkour will open this year's Rotterdam Arab Film Festival taking place from 7 September until 11 September 2011.

Thabet Madkour looks into the documents of cinema and politics through the course of one hundred years of Egyptian history. He delivers very important historical archives starting with the arrival of the Lumiere brothers and the making of cinema, to the royals, the military coup, up until the former Mubarak regime. Also to be featured in this festival are other Egyptian films: Pale Red directed by Mohamed Hammad and Natural Colours by Ossama Fawzy. 

The Rotterdam Arab Film Festival is a cultural activity organised by Stichting Arab Film Festival in cooperation with several Dutch and Arab organisations. The objective of the festival is to support Arab cinema and Arab filmmakers, to promote better understanding among the Arab and European people, and to be a means for developing the artistic film industry.