JustWatch

My Name Is Not Ali

2011

Jannat 'Ali

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 archive 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.

El Hedi ben Salem Rainer Werner Fassbinder Abd El-Kader Jarrary Hafsia Mellaim Viola Shafik Renate Leiffer Irm Hermann Karl Scheydt Rudolf Waldemar Brem Hans Hirschmüller Hamdan Jarrary Zeina Jarrary Ahmed Lecomte Reqaya Zkoura Chadhlia Zkoura Najat Ghribi Kurt Raab Thea Eymèsz Nikolaus Notter Marie Notter

Alternative Titles

Ali im Paradies, Ali im Paradies - My Name is not Ali, Не се казвам Али

Genre

Documentary

Theatrical

07 Nov 2011

Germany

Germany

07 Nov 2011

Theatrical

98 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Jay 1

Really lays bare how Fassbinder simultaneously embodies and condemns racism with Fear Eats the Soul. While it was celebrated as progressive back then, it‘s also a film whose black main character is not more than a paperthin projection space for every other character in the film and a person that essentially gets dehumanized and fetishized.
It‘s also actually really hard to see so much confident racism come out of the mouths of Irm Hermann and Fassbinders peers and to realize that Fassbinder was actually a complete asshole and probably a pedophilia enabler, who got away with everything just because of his talent as a filmmaker.
Review by A. Christopher ★★★½

'My Name Is Not Ali' is the very sad and bizarre story of one of Fassbinder's most recognisable stars, the mysterious, gentle-hearted Moroccan immigrant of 'Fear Eats the Soul', El Hedi ben Salem.
This documentary is both moving and confusing, we never really get to find out who the real Salem was or understand what motivated him, but it seems like no one in his real life did either. The mystery of his suicide in a French prison seems to be cleared up, at least, as apparently instead he died of a heart attack when playing football with other inmates.
While both actor and director were dead before they reached 45, the real victims of the romantic and artistic collaboration…
Review by Christof ★★★★

I have wanted to watch this documentary about the life of El Hedi ben Salem, the male lead actor of Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul for a while, and having ended 2021 with my I-don't-know-how-many-eth rewatch of Fassbinder's grand masterpiece, it feels appropriate to begin the year 2022 with the film about the man who became Ali in that film, to the point that they share their real full name. Because actor and character are very much interwoven, Salem's own life story adds another layer of tragedy to the character's story: El Hedi ben Salem was one of many people who only started acting in Fassbinder's films because they were in his private circle. They were lovers for a while,…
Review by johnshf

Recommended.
I wanted to watch this after trying to come to terms with the fetishised naked black bodies in World on a wire.
Eye opening interviews with Fassbinder's gang who almost seem to resent 'Ali' and at times resemble the bigotted characters in Fear eats the soul.
Review by dawnofthemovies ★★★½

Sad, unique and insightful documentary on actor El-Hedi Ben Salem, best known for playing the lead role in Fassbinder's film Fear Eats The Soul
Review by Lydia Roberts ★★½

During Arrow Academy's last sale I picked up Fear Eats the Soul purely so I could watch this little-known documentary that I wasn't even aware of till my friend brought it to my attention. Compared to other Fassbinder documentaries (I think this is my 4th if we're counting it), I'm glad it exists purely because it's less about him and his career and instead has a more social approach to the dynamics of his groups and crew, largely through the lens of El Hedi ben Salem; the mysterious and frequently cast Arab who starred in Fear Eats the Soul and was the director's lover for a number of years.
Sadly this isn't quite as good as I'd hoped. It's largely…
Review by az3z ★★★★½

when the white guys preaching about anti-racism are actually racist 😱
Review by markd_mke ★★★★

I found this to be quite a great doc. Ostensibly about El Hedi ben Salem, it’s also about the people in the circles of the Venn diagram of his life. There’s as much about RWF and crew, as well as intimate looks at Salem’s relations in Algeria and Tunisia and Paris. I was extremely captivated by the humanistic aspect of these “regular” people who found themselves being interviewed for a film. I really enjoyed all the RWF information, but equally loved just seeing the real face of an 80 year old woman remembering her past.

Letterboxd — Your life in film

Where to watch

My Name Is Not Ali

Jannat 'Ali

Synopsis

Cast

Director

Producer

Writer

Editor

Cinematography

Sound

Studio

Countries

Primary Language

Spoken Languages

Alternative Titles

Genre

Releases by Date

Theatrical

07 Nov 2011

Releases by Country

Germany

07 Nov 2011

Popular reviews

Where to watch

My Name Is Not Ali

Jannat 'Ali

Synopsis

Cast

Director Director

Producer Producer

Writer Writer

Editor Editor

Cinematography Cinematography

Sound Sound

Studio

Countries

Primary Language

Spoken Languages

Alternative Titles

Genre

Theatrical

07 Nov 2011

Germany

07 Nov 2011

Popular reviews

Director

Producer

Writer

Editor

Cinematography

Sound