Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Criterion Collection) (Blu-ray)

The wildly prolific German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder (WORLD ON a WIRE) paid homage to his cinematic hero Douglas Sirk with this update of that filmmaker's 1955 ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. a lonely widow (Brigitte Mira) meets a much younger Arab worker (El Hedi ben Salem) in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise - and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies. In ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL, Fassbinder expertly uses the emotional power of classic Hollywood melodrama to expose the racial tensions underlying contemporary German culture.

Starring: Brigitte Mira, El Hedi Ben Salem, Barbara Valentin, Irm Hermann, Peter Gauhe, Doris Mattes, Karl Scheid, Elma Korlowa, Anita Bucher, Elma Karlowa, Hark Bohm, Karl Scheydt, Lilo Pempeit, Liselotte Eder, Margit Symo, Peter Moland, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Gusti Kreissl, Walter Sedlmayr, Marquard Bohm, Hannes Gromball, Rudolf Waldemar Brem, Helga Ballhaus

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder