Angst essen Seele auf

Oct 31 1974 Not Rated 1h 32m
Drama, Romance

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.

Official Trailer
Plot

The wildly prolific German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder paid homage to his cinematic hero Douglas Sirk with this update of that filmmaker's All That Heaven Allows (1955). A lonely widow (Brigitte Mira) meets a much younger Moroccan worker (El Hedi ben Salem) in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise-and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies. In Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, Fassbinder expertly wields the emotional power of classic Hollywood melodrama to expose the racial tensions underlying contemporary German culture.

Written by

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Directed by

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Cast

Brigitte Mira, El Hedi ben Salem, Barbara Valentin

Crew

View crew

Production Countries

Germany

Production Companies

Filmverlag der Autoren, Tango Film

Languages

Deutsch

Awards

4 wins & 1 nomination

Trailers
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul | Trailer [HD]
AFS Presents: Ali: Fear Eats The Soul
Featurettes
Observations on Film Art: The Stripped-Down Style of ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL
Mark Kermode reviews Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul (1974) | BFI Player
Scores
# of Votes
24,847
Average Rating
8 out of 10
Metascore
NA
Popularity
NA