Before one becomes a critic, one is a viewer and reader of criticism, and these first observations and readings form one’s first concept of what cinema is. The critic may remain loyal to this concept, or he may rebel against it once or several times. In this lecture, Essam Zakaria attempts to trace the most important stations and turning points in his concepts of cinema and criticism over nearly four decades, extending from the eighties of the last century until today. This individual history is largely intertwined with the history of Arab and international criticism, starting with being influenced by and apprenticed by major Egyptian and Arab critics, then moving on to different and varied foreign readings, sometimes divergent to the point of contradiction, arriving at the formation and refinement of a concept that integrates general history with personal history