Movie

My Name Is Not Ali

2011 · 98 min

A quiet, thoughtful documentary that sifts through memories and archives, leaving a lingering sadness about a man reduced to a projection.

Directed by: Viola Shafik
Genres: Documentary
Starring: El Hedi ben Salem, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Abd El-Kader Jarrary

Overview: 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.

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Directed by: Viola Shafik
Genres: Documentary
Starring: El Hedi ben Salem, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Abd El-Kader Jarrary

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How it feels

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Tone: melancholicstrength 2 of 3
earneststrength 2 of 3
darkstrength 1 of 3
cynicalstrength 1 of 3
Pacing: measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: identity
race
celebrity
memory
isolation
Places: big city
countryside
Era: contemporary
Audience: adult
Form: documentary
true story
Content intensity: Gore none
Language mild
Violence mild
Sex mild

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	0
Horror	0
Humour	2
Realism	9
Romance	2
Tension	3
Darkness	6
Complexity	6
Emotional weight	7

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Where to watch in the UK

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Details

Genres: documentary
Directed by: Viola Shafik
Written by: Viola Shafik
Starring: El Hedi ben Salem, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Abd El-Kader Jarrary, Hafsia Mellaim, Viola Shafik, Renate Leiffer, Irm Hermann, Karl Scheydt
Runtime: 98 min
Country: Egypt, Germany
Languages: Arabic, German

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My Name Is Not Ali

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