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Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

1974 · TMDB 7.7 · Angst essen Seele auf

Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.

Why it matters

Rainer Werner Fassbinder reworks All That Heaven Allows as the story of a widowed cleaning woman and a younger Moroccan worker in Munich. The flat, unglamorous images make the social cruelty harder to look away from.

From The Melodrama They Never Let Us Keep

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