A Film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder

West Germany in 1974 is still feeling the after-effects of the Second World War. Emmi, a cleaning lady almost of retirement age, lives a solitary life in Munich: a widow with adult children, she feels an unbearable sense of loneliness. One evening, on her way home, she stops into a bar to wait out the rain. Here she meets Ali a strapping young Moroccan immigrant. Despite the vast differences in their ages and cultures, Emmi and Ali embark upon a torrid love affair, marrying after only a few weeks. But their happiness scandalises Emmi's children, co-workers and fellow townspeople, who are disgusted by Emmi's brazen flouting of their standards of decency.
Heavily influenced by Douglas Sirk's celebrated 1955 Hollywood melodrama, All That Heaven Allows, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is widely viewed as one of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's crowning cinematic accomplishments.