A Summary of the Film:
This documentary is meant to focus on the life of El Hedi Ben Salem, and although it does do that it is forced to focus on both the lives and relationship of Salem and Rainer Fassbinder. Through interviews with friends from the olden days like actress Irm Hermann, and Fassbinder’s own assistant Renate Leiffer, we get insight into the relationship of the group and the making of Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. When being asked about Salem himself many people seem to have skewed memories or very few memories at all, and the majority of the time he’s discussed it’s in a sexual manor. Viewers learn how Fassbinder treated his friends and more importantly his lover, Salem, and we see how people still feel about him and Salem all these decades later, after all the drama of their relationship has come to pass. The documentary moves to North Africa to interview Salem’s family and get their perspective on the real man what what happened to him. The one thing evident throughout the film is the lack of respect Salem received/receives from just about everyone who knew him in the olden days, misremembering aspects of his life and constantly sexualizing him.
Why this film is transnational:
Takes place in Germany and Morocco
French, German and Arabic are used- The title is in German, French, and Arabic.
Universal themes such as Racial Stereotypes and Homosexuality are talked about in the film.
Analysis of the clip:
This clip further shows the larger themes shown throughout the film, these being racism and homosexuality. We can see in the beginning the pictures of Salem with the woman who is talking about Salem and Fassbinder, which shows the friendship between the group. She then describes that they would go out, eat and do everything together. Then just as we saw in the movie “Ali Fear Eats the Soul”, she sexualizes Salem and says that she never slept with him because it was taboo. Not only is she sexualizing him but she is showing the racism that was ever-present in the time of her friendship with Salem and Fassbinder. Finally, she says that Salem was Fassbinder’s lover which deals with the theme of Homosexuality during the movie. One of the main focuses is that Salem was bisexual and Fassbinder’s lover, which seems to be the only thing that the interviewees remembered about Salem.
Larger Themes:
- Homosexuality- Throughout the film, the interviewees had a hard time recalling any details about Salem, other than the fact that they knew that he and Fassbinder were in a sexual relationship. They oversexualize him because they are constantly talking about the sexual relationship between Fassbinder and Salem.
- Racial Stereotypes-Interviewees in Germany don’t remember where Salem came from except that he was from the ‘desert’, they talk more about Fassbinder as a director and a person than they talk about Salem. In the beginning, it was said that it was taboo to be seen with Salem for the woman that was part of the relationship trio of Salem and Fassbinder because he was Moroccan. Then when we go to Morocco we learn that Fassbinder brought Salem’s sons to Germany and they had no European cultural knowledge.
- The title of the documentary in German “Ali im Paradies” literally translates to “Ali in Paradise” but it was given the title of “My name is not Ali” for the English title. Our source states that the two titles show that he is not a “quota Ali” which is an Arab man with long black beards and uncivilized behavior, living in slums. But the German title suggests that Salem, who is struggling to be acknowledged as an individual and not a ‘quota-Ali’, is in paradise now that he has passed and is not being stereotyped by Germans.
Source:
Schlagenhaufer, Tina. “Film Review: My Name Is Not Ali – Ali Im Paradies – Jannat Ali.” Multicultural Germany Project, UC Berkeley, 2015, mgp.berkeley.edu/2015/12/04/film-review-my-name-is-not-ali-ali-im-paradies-jannat-ali/.