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.
Born: January 1, 1936
Place of Birth: Morocco
Known For
When Fear Eats the Soul
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.
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
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.
Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day
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.
Fox and His Friends
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.
World on a Wire
World on a Wire (German: Welt am Draht) is a two-part 1973 West German science fiction television serial broadcast on ARD. Shot on 16 mm film, the two-part miniseries is drected by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who co-writes the screenplay with Fritz Müller-Scherz, based on Daniel F. Galouye's 1964 novel Simulacron-3. In the future, Simulacron, a computer project simulating reality, encounters strange occurrences after its leader's death. Dr Fred Stiller questions the sudden disappearance of a friend and wonders if Simulacron holds the answers.
Martha
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.
The Merchant of Four Seasons
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.
Jail Bait
Based on Franz Xaver Kroetz's play, which is in turn based on a true story, this film by Rainer Werner Fassbinder tells the story of a very young girl who, after persuading a local boy to become her lover, induces the anger of her father, whose incestuous sexual attentions to her have grown unbearable.
My Name Is Not 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 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.
Like a Bird on a Wire
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.
Filmography
as Self (archive footage)
as Ali (archive footage)
as Salem the Moroccan (uncredited)
as Bodybuilder
as Hotel Guest
as Ali
as Bodyguard
as Französischer Soldat
as Dunkelhäutiger Arbeiter
as Araber