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El Hedi ben Salem

El Hedi ben Salem

Acting

Biography

El Hedi ben Salem was a Moroccan actor. He is best known as the lover and collaborator of provocative German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He died while in prison. Fassbinder dedicated his last film, Querelle (1982), to Salem. In 2012, a documentary on Salem's life entitled My Name Is Not Ali, premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival.

Known For

World on a Wire
7.3

In the future, Simulacron, a computer project simulating reality, encounters strange occurrences after its leader's death. Dr. Stiller questions the sudden disappearance of a friend and wonders if Simulacron holds the answers.

World on a Wire

1973
Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day
7.7

Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (German: Acht Stunden sind kein Tag) is a West German television drama miniseries written and directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk, it broadcast in five episodes between 1972 and 1973. In Cologne, West Germany, young toolmaker Jochen's world is explored, including those around him: the woman he loves, his eccentric family, and his fellow workers, with whom he bands together to improve conditions on the factory floor.

Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day

1972
Querelle
6.6

A handsome Belgian sailor on shore leave in the port of Brest, who is also a drug smuggler and murderer, embarks upon a voyage of highly charged and violent homosexual self-discovery that will change him forever from the man he once was.

Querelle

1982
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
7.7

Emmi Kurowski, a cleaning lady, is lonely in her old age. Her husband died years ago, and her grown children offer little companionship. One night she goes to a bar frequented by Arab immigrants and strikes up a friendship with middle-aged mechanic Ali. Their relationship soon develops into something more, and Emmi's family and neighbors criticize their spontaneous marriage. Soon Emmi and Ali are forced to confront their own insecurities about their future.

Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

1974
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
7.4

Petra von Kant is a successful fashion designer -- arrogant, caustic, and self-satisfied. She mistreats Marlene (her secretary, maid, and co-designer). Enter Karin, a 23-year-old beauty who wants to be a model. Petra falls in love with Karin and invites her to move in.

The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

1972
Fox and His Friends
7.2

Fox, a former circus performer, wins the lottery of DM 500,000 and can now have the life and things that he has always wanted. He enters an abusive relationship with wealthy industrialist Eugen in an attempt to climb the social ladder. His desperation for love and affection soon spirals into tragedy.

Fox and His Friends

1975
Martha
7.0

After the death of her abusive father, lonely librarian Martha finds herself caught up in a strange, sadomasochistic relationship with a monstrous husband whom she begins to suspect may be trying to murder her.

Martha

1974
Tenderness of the Wolves
5.7

A German serial killer preys on boys and young men during the so-called years of crisis between the wars. Based on the true story of Fritz Haarmann, aka the Butcher of Hanover and the Vampire of Hanover.

Tenderness of the Wolves

1973
Jail Bait
6.1

In a small German town, a 14-year-old girl's relationship with an older man draws scrutiny and leads to legal consequences, reflecting the constraints of their social surroundings.

Jail Bait

1973
The Merchant of Four Seasons
6.7

Hans is a street fruit peddler and born loser. His choice of career upsets his bourgeois family, causing him to turn to drinking and violence. After recovering from a debilitating heart attack, his business finally begins to take off. However, the more he becomes a credit to his family, the more depressed he becomes.

The Merchant of Four Seasons

1972
When Fear Eats the Soul
10.0

Mixing scenes of Douglas Sirk's All That Heaven Allows and Fassbinder's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, François Ozon creates a new film about cinephilic contamination.

When Fear Eats the Soul

2007
Like a Bird on a Wire
5.9

A pseudo variety show about the Aufbau-Era, the time of the German 'economic miracle'. Brigitte Mira recounts her four husbands through song and joke, on a series of artificial sets.

Like a Bird on a Wire

1975
My Name Is Not Ali
6.3

Travelling between Germany, France, and Tunisia, Viola Shafik reconstructs and deconstructs the unknown life story of El Hedi Ben Salem through interviews with his companions and family members as well as archival material. With openness and slight naivety, the interviewees explain how “Ali” became an oriental object of projection for the Fassbinder group, while El Hedi Ben Salem, the human being, was overlooked in order to establish the foreigner as “other.” A no-frills examination of a piece of German and Munich film history.

My Name Is Not Ali

2011