Ali Fear Eat The Soul Essay

The Humanities Film Series I attended was Ali: Fear Eats the Soul with Professor Girish Shambu. In the film there are many themes presented and debated. One of the main themes was the concept of race and how people view and oppress different races. Another theme was the constant stillness and staring from people. Throughout the film these themes and other themes were presented. One theme that was repeated through Ali: Fear Eats the Soul was the constant topic of race and immigrants. Ali, a moroccan migrant worker, marries a white, German 60 year old cleaning woman, named Emmi. People look down on Ali because of his race. They see Arabs as unclean, uncivilized, and dangerous and animals. Eventually word gets out that Emmi is married to a Moroccan man and people, including her co workers, family, and friends, start to ignore her and avoid talking to her. After Emmi and her husband, Ali, went on a vacation, people started treating them better and “using” them for various tasks. For example, Emmi’s coworkers, who formerly ostracized her, can bond with her again now that their relentless need to reject someone has found a new victim in a recently arrived Yugoslavian workmate.

One question that I had was if there was any significant meaning behind steak scene in the restaurant. Professor Shambu responded that the steak scene was to symbolize that even if Emmi and Ali aren’t of the same race, they are both working class and aren’t very cultured when it comes to more expensive goods, like the difference between raw and medium steak. Another question asked was about why the end of scenes would take so long to change. Professor Shambu said that he thought it was to illustrate how long people tend to think about problems and how people aren’t always the smartest when it comes to thinking and making decisions about