cinema arab spring revolution starts a revealing new season films ica looks religion revoltdo roots arab spring lie cinema question absurd surely kleptocratic dictatorship youth unemployment grain prices played iranian film scholar hamid dabashi disagrees want understand emotive universe arab spring arose cinema good place start look film like elia suleimans divine intervention director spits apricot pit israeli tank blows scene fantasy speaking month winds change series talks screenings ica london showcasing films muslim world hopes explore rich fraught relationship religion civic society ozer kiziltans takva 2006 powerful psychodrama devout turkish given rent collecting job crisis faith meeting people outside spiritual circle hatem alis long night 2009 study transformed alienating syria political prisoners return screened country moufida tlatlis les silences palais 1994 set end french colonial rule tunisia examines independence lens films striking national thematic diversity include palestinian american annemarie jacirs salt sea 2008 ceddo 1977 groundbreaking work sengalese director ousmane sembene hailed grandfather african cinema exception takva makes artful use grids geometric shapes films draw aesthetic techniques thought islamicis idea islamic cinema problematic i ask ali nobil ahmad curator series sure middle eastern cinema thats quite patronising eurocentric term actually i think idea islamic cinema exists west islam presumed modern culture id argue films insist kind stylistic unity – nearly islam portrayed quite marginal argue religiosity determining force theyre change modernity neocons like francis fukuyama say islamic world incapable ofof course critically feted muslim directors labelled – nuri bilge ceylan abbas kiarostami film world prefers use narrower categories iranian cinema turkish cinema want thought auteur want categorised according ethnicity religion ahmad says calling islamic youre meant taking away universal appealwinds change effective drawing attention various liberation struggles islamic world successful comes highlighting flourishing range film making styles provocative films owe pulp fi subcultures mainstream cinema look omar ali khans anti yuppie anti fundamentalist horror flick hells ground 2007 halil uysals tirej 2002 mesmerising film – – kurdish guerrilla soldiers omar majeeds 