El Hedi ben Salem

El Hedi ben Salem

Born: January 1, 1936
Died: January 1, 1976
in Morocco
El Hedi ben Salem is a Moroccan actor. He is best known as the lover and collaborator of provocative German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. He died of a heart attack 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.

Movies for El Hedi ben Salem...

My Name Is Not Ali
Title: My Name Is Not Ali
Character: Self (archive footage)
Released: November 7, 2011
Type: Movie
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.
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When Fear Eats the Soul
Title: When Fear Eats the Soul
Character: Ali (archive footage)
Released: February 1, 2007
Type: Movie
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.
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Fox and His Friends
Title: Fox and His Friends
Character: Salem the Moroccan (uncredited)
Released: June 6, 1975
Type: Movie
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. While he wants to climb up the social ladder, it isn't without turmoil, and being torn between his old working class roots, and the shiny new facade of middle class consciousness.
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Like a Bird on a Wire
Title: Like a Bird on a Wire
Character: Bodybuilder
Released: May 5, 1975
Type: Movie
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 an series of artificial sets.
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Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Title: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Character: Ali
Released: June 5, 1974
Type: Movie
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.
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Martha
Title: Martha
Character: Hotel Guest
Released: May 28, 1974
Type: Movie
After the death of her abusive father, lonely librarian Martha is caught in a strange, sadomasochistic relationship with a monstrous husband whom she begins to suspect may be trying to murder her.
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Title: World on a Wire
Character: Bodyguard
Released: October 14, 1973
Type: TV
Cybernetics engineer Fred Stiller uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy involving a virtual reality computer project.
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Tenderness of the Wolves
Title: Tenderness of the Wolves
Character: Französischer Soldat
Released: July 12, 1973
Type: Movie
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.
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Jail Bait
Title: Jail Bait
Released: January 9, 1973
Type: Movie
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.
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The Merchant of Four Seasons
Title: The Merchant of Four Seasons
Character: Araber
Released: February 10, 1972
Type: Movie
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.