On a rainy night in Munich in 1974 a lonely 60 something widow walks into a bar enticed by the sounds of Arabic music. Emmi orders a coke and Ali a 40 something Moroccan ‘guest worker’ asks her to dance. Their friendship deepens and they decide to marry. The reaction that their relationship provokes and in turn, the effect that society has on their life together is told in this tale of intolerance and prejudice.
Emmi (Brigitte Mira) and Ali (El Hedi ben Salem) offend everybody just by being together. Spurned by everyone including her children, the subject of gossip and name calling, Emmi’s isolation builds until she finds herself adopting the same xenophobic attitudes as her friends and neighbours to feel included.
A sparse, deliberate style of acting and dialogue and rigid framing through doorways and windows shows the characters uneasiness, even Emmi and Ali often have a lot of space between them. A shot where we see Emmi sitting alone at lunch is paralleled a short while later when Emmi is the insider gossiping with her friends and ignoring a new worker from Yogoslavia who is left alone on the stairs.
And Ali joins in with his friends laughing over Emmi and her age, as they joke that she’s his grandmother from Morocco. Our need to be included can be so desperate it leads to so much unthinking cruelty. But the film ends with a whisper of hope as their tender romance does survive and Emmi’s solution for them is simple: ‘when we’re together, we must be nice to one another.’
Written, directed and produced by Rainer Werner Fassbinder in just 15 days, Roger Ebert says in his review that he made the film so quickly he only had time to tell the truth. And the truth isn’t very easy to watch. Fassbinder plays Emmi’s obnoxiously racist son in law, but the casual remarks and looks and assumptions held by her co-workers and neighbours felt very familiar.
Just Reading A Book 
This sounds intense and sad, but very realistic.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It was all of those unfortunately, but very interesting all the same.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sounds like it was subversive in a number of ways, not least the older woman-younger man set up!
LikeLiked by 1 person
And thinking about it, he doesn’t once bring up her age which makes it even sadder when he joins in with the laughter about her being a grandma, it’s a very tender relationship in a very toxic setting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You do watch some interesting films! This one sounds very topical even if it took place in the 70s.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The racist comments are perhaps said more openly but apart from that it felt very current unfortunately.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s funny, I can see how the title fits with the story and yet it seems to give a totally wrong impression of what the film is going to be. As a title alone, I’d have expected schlock horror, and the title with the poster pic would make me think the plot would be to do with either refugees, terrorism or war – pretty sure that gives a window onto my own lazy assumptions!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I was expecting schlock horror as well! Ali does use the phrase when he’s talking with Emmi about the society they’re living in and the fear of the unknown, I should have mentioned it but I was a bit worried about getting it wrong!
LikeLiked by 1 person
‘He made the film so quickly he only had time to tell the truth.’ This quote is super! No wonder Ebert was the go-to reviewer.
LikeLiked by 1 person