His anti-racist film Ali - Fear Eats Soul (1973) gained German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder international acclaim. The protagonist, an Arab foreign worker, was played by Moroccan El Hedi Ben Salem M'barek Mohammed Mustafa, Fassbinder's lover at that time. While the film itself courageously deals with the racism of post-war German society, its makers reproduced the insensibility and invention of the Other, fantasizing their own ‘Salem'. Collage-like, through interviews and archive material, My Name Is Not Ali uncovers the invention of El Hedi Ben Salem by the Fassbinder troupe, an image not revised by most of its members till today.

El Hedi Ben Salem, Rainer Werner Fassbinder's unlucky North-African lover, lead player of Ali Fear Eats Soul (1973) has been the subject of a myth: described as a'cultural miracle' he was said to have terrified film director Fassbinder until he was jilted by him, only to take his own life soon after (sic.).
The real life story of Ben Salem however seems governed not only by misled professional aspirations, congested love and multiple betrayals, but also by the sexualized politics of imagining and possessing the cultural Other.

A documentary film by Viola Shafik

Egypt/Germany 2011, 98 min, HDCAM, Arabic/German with English subtitles


Viola Shafik director, writer, camera, sound
Doreen Ignaszewski editor, sound designer
Bassam Elelaimy sound editor
Ahmed Gaber sound mix
Noureddine Ben Redjeb voice over Ben Salem's letters
Renate Leiffer research consultant
Majdi El-Omari dramaturgy consultant
Zazou Röver dramaturgy consultant
Onsi Abou Seif producer
Bärbel Mauch production consultant
Mathies van Eendenburg legal consultant
Andreas Duckert IT support
Maggie Morgan editing subtitles
trickWILK GmbH (Th. Wilk) DV transfer
Cast
Mohamed El-Hedi Ben Salem (Jarrary) worker, actor, night watch († 1976)
Abd El-Kader Jarrary teacher
Najat GhribiHamdan Jarrary trader
Zakia Jarrary housewife
Zeina Jarrary housewife
Hafsia Mellaim housewife
Reqaya Zkoura teacher
Chadhlia Zkoura cleaning woman
Ahmed Lecomte (Mellaim) businessman
Renate Leiffer assistant director
Irm Hermann actress
Karl Scheydt actor († 2009)
Hans Hirschmüller actor
Rudolf Waldemar Brem actor
Thea Eymész film editor
Nikolas Notter judge retd.& lawyer
Marie Odile Notter psycho-sociologist retd.
Kurt Raab set designer & actor († 1988)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder film/theatre director & actor († 1982)
Technical Specs
Shooting Format HD CAM
Screening Format various digital formats
Screen Ratio 16:9
Sound stereo

Production
Daoud Abd El Sayed for Diogenes Film
Viola Shafik

Script
Viola Shafik

Distribution Benelux
Jan Vrijman Fund

Financier
Daoud Abd El Sayed for Diogenes Film


Country of Production: Germany
Country of Production: Egypt
Region: Africa
Application type JVF: Script
Year production: 2011
Production Status JVF: completed

Length: 90 min.
Completion Date: October 2011
Financing: Incomplete
Region: Africa

Selected for
JVF 2008

Jan Vrijman Fund
Supported for: Script 2008
Received amount: € 4,000
www.idfa.nl/industry/tags/project.aspx?id=cd85ed08-eb39-446d-8a11-2652888c6123

Distribution
mec film
person to contact: Irit Neidhardt
Emdener Str. 48d | 10551 Berlin | Germany
phone 49-30-66766700 | fax 49-30-66766699
email: info@mecfilm.de | www.mecfilm.de

Selected for
JVF 2008 (Jan Vrijman Fund), Holland.