auditorium at the Knott Science Center
Notre Dame of Maryland University

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974, 93 minutes)
introduction and commentary by Linda DeLibero, Director, Film & Media Studies, Johns Hopkins University

The 1970s movement that came to be known as New German Cinema brought global attention to a generation of young directors whose influence rivaled their Weimar-era forebears. While Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders are the most famous among the group, its enfant terrible, Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982), was arguably the most talented and certainly the most prolific, churning out an incredible 40 features in less than 15 years. One of these, ‘Ali: Fear Eats the Soul’ is widely considered among his greatest works, and it made him internationally famous. It is also perhaps his most tender, hopeful film within a bleak oeuvre. Loosely based on Douglas Sirk’s ‘All That Heaven Allows’ (1955), the film chronicles the romance between a widowed cleaning lady and a much younger Moroccan guest worker. Fassbinder’s portrayal of the racism and approbation that greets the odd couple extends his critique of contemporary German society to include a ruthless examination of the psychology of oppression, which springs from within as well as without.

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