8.00 pm. Emmi, a lonely cleaner loves Ali, a Moroccan immigrant who is 20 years her junior, much to the chagrin of the 1970s resentfully racist “anständig” (Civilised) post war Munich middle class.
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s movie is a heart-rending and extremely prescient drama. When Fassbinder’s 1974 movie Fear Eats the Soul was nationally re-released as part of a retrospective at London’s BFI Southbank a couple of year ago, audiences found it quietly amazing nearly 40 years after its initial release: a simple, clear story and yet with its own sophisticated moral intelligence.
Fassbinder’s film offers a dispassionate dissection of the social pressures and racial hatred (still) apparent in 70s Germany. It is a love story between two lonely souls and an indictment of hidden xenophobia and racism that still existed in Germany. (German with English Subtitles)
