My Name is Not Ali

جنة علي

My Name is Not Ali (Jannat Ali)

His anti-racist film Ali, Fear Eats Soul (1973) gained German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder international acclaim. The protagonist, an Arab foreign worker, was played by Moroccan El Hedi Ben Salem M'barek Mohammed Mustafa, Fassbinder's lover at that time. While the film itself courageously deals with the racism of post-war German society, its makers reproduced the insensibility and invention of the Other, fantasizing their own 'Salem'. Collage-like, through interviews and archive material, My Name Is Not Ali uncovers the invention of El Hedi Ben Salem by the Fassbinder troupe, an image not revised by most of its members till today.

^{Documentary, Viola Shafik, Egypt/Germany 2011, 93 min, German/Arabic/French with English ST}^{director, writer, camera, sound Viola Shafik |}^{editor, sound designer Doreen Ignaszewski |}^{sound editor Bassam Elelaimy |}^{sound mix Ahmed Gaber |}^{voice over Ben Salem's letters Noureddine Ben Redjeb|}^{research consultant Renate Leiffer |}^{dramaturgy consultant Majdi El-Omari | dramaturgy consultant}^{Zazou Röver |}^{producer Onsi Abou Seif | production consultant}^{Bärbel Mauch |}^{legal consultant Mathies van Eendenburg |}^{IT support Andreas Duckert |}^{editing subtitles Maggie Morgan | DV transfer}^{trickWILK GmbH (Th. Wilk)}

From the press
This footnote to Fassbinder's ouevre should intrigue the many arthouse types still fascinated by the director's films and life. (Variety)