Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

REVIEW
Fassbinder's bittersweet love story about the affair between a lonely 60-year-old German cleaning woman and a reticent Moroccan auto mechanic half her age is a raw, intense look at racial attitudes and unconventional relationships. Mira and Ben Salem star as the two lovers who find brief solace with each other in spite of family objections, social rejection and racial prejudice. Fassbinder's first film to play theatrically in the U.S., Ali is startling in its examination of xenophobia and is an unflinching study of the passion between "societal misfits," one of the director's favorite themes. (German with English subtitles)