Just make the man some couscous
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Angst essen Seele auf
An acclaimed, slow-burn romance.
Romance
Drama
1974
1h 33m
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.
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Cast & crew
6What people say
There is one scene in this film at around the one hour mark that takes this film from good to great, and really resonated with me on a personal level. This scene involves Emmi breaking down in front of Ali after she realizes how differently the world now treats her. In this scene I saw something that I rarely get to see in cinema and that is a real understanding of oppression through the uncaring eyes of a world that doesn't value you anymore. In Emmi's case this involves her interracial marriage to a man much younger than her. She's looking at something that she has never seen before and she doesn't know how to react to it. She wants to carve out a place in the world where she can have a fulfilling life with the man she loves, but the reality of her situation makes that world nonexistent. She breaks down. She doesn't recognize the world anymore because it changed as soon as she stepped outside of the boundaries of what was perceived as normal in Germany in the 1970s. It's a heartbreaking scene and the moment where I fell in love with this film.
"Making couscous" is a fantastic euphemism for fucking
Common questions
What is Ali: Fear Eats the Soul about?+
An elderly widow and a young Moroccan immigrant strike up an unlikely romance, only to face intense scrutiny and isolation from their neighbors and family.
Who directed Ali: Fear Eats the Soul?+
It was directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1974, a pivotal figure of the New German Cinema movement known for his prolific output.
Has the film won any awards?+
Yes, it won the International Federation of Film Critics award and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.
