Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (German: Angst essen Seele auf, meaning "Fear Eat Up Soul") is a 1974 West German film written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and starring Brigitte Mira and El Hedi ben Salem. The film won two awards at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. It is considered to be one of Fassbinder's most powerful works and is hailed by many as a masterpiece. Brigitte Mira received the German Film Award for her performance.
The original German title Angst essen Seele auf is deliberately grammatically incorrect, translating literally as "Fear eat soul up." The correct German form would be "Angst isst die Seele auf" – which (without the definite article "die") became the title of a related 2002 short film also starring Mira. The grammatical incorrectness of the title is however entirely appropriate, as it is a direct reference to one of the title character's lines. As an immigrant, he speaks in what can be referred to as "broken German" consistently throughout the film. The line of dialogue he utters is simply "Fear eat soul up."
Since Ali's poor German grammar is translated literally in the film's English subtitles, the subtitles for Ali's dialogue are similarly riddled with grammatical errors ("You no make couscous?").
Clasificación [ CM DVD 00432] Disponible en DVD, 4 Piso BJB)