Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)
I basically wanted to find out who this Fassbinder guy was, and it seemed like a good place to start. Within seconds I was thinking it looked and felt like a Aki Kaurismäki film. Fassbinder has clearly been a massive influence on Kaurismäki. Same sort of blunt, almost emotionless approach to characterization and flat yet colorful cinematography. I changed my opinion quite a bit during its runtime. Started being embraced by the style and sweet characters, then I thought the whole became too didactic, direct and one-noted, but it turned around in the end as the depiction of racism turns from very straightforward to blind angles. Showing that everyone has prejudices they need to work out. Some of these changes happen rather abrupt and while it is sort of “on the nose” on what it wants to say, I never felt it was outright preachy. Another interesting director added to the list.
Rating: 4