Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

A cleaner in her sixties living alone in Munich meets a Moroccan worker in a bar where she has gone to get out of the rain. They marry soon after. The film's real subject is the reaction around them: her children, the neighbours, the grocer, her colleagues. Then, as the hostility fades, something else happens and the relationship itself comes under strain; the narrative shows that the racism is not only outside. Rainer Werner Fassbinder wrote and directed, drawing openly on Douglas Sirk's melodramas. The camera often looks through doorways and frames, and the couple always seem to be under observation. It was shot in two weeks. Who it's for: those interested in the experience of migrant workers in Germany and in Fassbinder's manner. Who it's not for: viewers wanting a warm love story; the film questions the relationship too.