Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

A Film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

West Germany in 1974 is still feeling the after-effects of the Second World War. Emmi, a cleaning lady almost of retirement age, lives a solitary life in Munich: a widow with adult children, she feels an unbearable sense of loneliness. One evening, on her way home, she stops into a bar to wait out the rain. Here she meets Ali—a strapping young Moroccan immigrant. Despite the vast differences in their ages and cultures, Emmi and Ali embark upon a torrid love affair, marrying after only a few weeks. But their happiness scandalises Emmi's children, co-workers and fellow townspeople, who are disgusted by Emmi's brazen flouting of their standards of decency.

Heavily influenced by Douglas Sirk's celebrated 1955 Hollywood melodrama, All That Heaven Allows, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is widely viewed as one of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's crowning cinematic accomplishments.

DVD Special Features

Original theatrical trailer
Audio commentary by Mark Freeman, Cinema Academic at LaTrobe University
A Powerful Political Potential: Todd Haynes, Sirk, Fassbinder and Melodrama
Essays by Jonathan Rosenbaum, film critic for THE CHICAGO READER (1987–2007) and author of several books, most recently 'Discovering Orson Welles' (2007) and Justin Vicari, author of several award-winning pieces of creative writing as well as scholarly film pieces.