Fear Eats the Soul 12A

Fassbinder’s homage to his own cinematic idol Douglas Sirk, Fear Eats The Soul is an emotionally raw extension of Sirk’s revered 1955 film All That Heaven Allows.

Emmi, a lonely, widowed cleaning lady unexpectedly falls for a young Moroccan worker who asks her to dance as she looks for shelter in an immigrant bar during a rainstorm. What follows is an unlikely love story plagued by bigotry and xenophobia that remains poignant today, using Fassbinder’s flair for dramatic visuals to push small, personal everyday moments into the realms of biting social commentary.