Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
"As anti-foreigner sentiment, particularly during the migrant crisis, continues to plague Germany and the rest of Europe, Fear Eats the Soul has never seemed more relevant.
Made around the midpoint of his career, Fear Eats the Soul is a powerful and accessible introduction to Fassbinder’s work. It’s one of his very best films. It stars Brigitte Mira as Emmi, an elderly cleaner who falls in love with Ali (El Hedi ben Salem, Fassbinder’s lover), a much younger Moroccan immigrant. The couple face prejudice from their neighbours, and the strain threatens their relationship. Racism and xenophobia were fiercely damned by Fassbinder previously in Katzelmacher (1969) and Whity (1971), but the use of melodrama to tell this very moving love story adds a painfully human dimension to the tale." — BFI
"As anti-foreigner sentiment, particularly during the migrant crisis, continues to plague Germany and the rest of Europe, Fear Eats the Soul has never seemed more relevant.
Made around the midpoint of his career, Fear Eats the Soul is a powerful and accessible introduction to Fassbinder’s work. It’s one of his very best films. It stars Brigitte Mira as Emmi, an elderly cleaner who falls in love with Ali (El Hedi ben Salem, Fassbinder’s lover), a much younger Moroccan immigrant. The couple face prejudice from their neighbours, and the strain threatens their relationship. Racism and xenophobia were fiercely damned by Fassbinder previously in Katzelmacher (1969) and Whity (1971), but the use of melodrama to tell this very moving love story adds a painfully human dimension to the tale." — BFI
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