ALİ: FEAR EATS THE SOUL

ALİ: FEAR EATS THE SOUL (ANGST ESSEN SEELE AUF), 1974
Germany | HDD, Color, 93’ | German, Arabic
Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin

One evening, Emmi, a 60-year-old cleaner, stops at a pub visited by foreign guest workers. There she meets Ali, a big, bearded Moroccan, who is much younger than Emmi. His real name is completely different, but all the guest workers from his country are simply called Ali in Germany, as he tells his partner. They sit down and talk about their loneliness and fall in love. As a "film about a love that is really impossible, but possible after all,” this socially critical melodrama is inspired by Douglas Sirk's style, both aesthetically and dramatically.

Photo: © Goethe-Institut