The biography of Mamatkul Arabov, a classic of Tajik documentary cinema, a VGIK graduate, a combat cameraman who shot the Great Patriotic War, a member of the International Association of combat cameramen, is tightly intertwined with the entire history of Tajik people. His portrait emerges from the mosaic of memories of his colleagues and friends. Being a descendant of millionaires of Bukhara, a Soviet combat cameraman, a communist documentary filmmaker, and later an active participant of the revival and popularization of Tajik traditional culture in Sovereign Tajikistan, he reflected the contradictory nature of XX century in his life and art. His lens captured the important stages in Tajik history in his documentaries, like "Discovering Osrushana" (1989), "Hephthalites who are you?" (1994), "I won't die" (1994), "A Dear memory" (1995) and "Bobojon Gafurov: phenomenon of 'Tajiks" (1998).