In this paper, I will mention the movie “Angst essen Seele Auf” “Fear Eats the Soul”.

The
movie is about two underdogs, Emmi and Ali. Emmi is a 60-year-old widow who works as a
cleaning lady. We see that she is not proud of her job and clearly people have looked down on
her because of it. Ali is an immigrant, 40 years old, from Morocco who came to Germany as a
labor worker. It is clear that the two characters are different from each other in a context that
they have different ages and different ethnic origins. Although they have this distinction between
them, the one value they have for each other is love and caring. They slowly build romance
between each other and eventually get married; however, this marriage is not accepted by their
social circle. Emmi’s family reject Ali, and they think their mom is starting to lose her mind. Ali
and Emmi are sure for their love, though, so they stand up for the oppression they experience
from other people.
Emmi’s circle includes apartment tenants and artisans. They also look down on the two
because the common folk of Germany feels threatened by the immigrants, and they also see
Emmi as an outsider. So, their relationship is something they can never accept as a society.
Emmi and Ali take a long trip to make sure their environment will miss them so they would take
easy on the discrimination yet when they come back, they see that people around them actually
have missed them, but for different means. Local people start seeing the pair as consuming units
instead of oppressing them in a social manner.
The movie is actually a hard critique of society for oppressed minorities. Ali and Emmi are
characters who never really fit in the society individually. When they come together, through
patience, tolerance and kindness, they can manage the “fear that eats the soul”.
Unfortunately, society tends to disregard everything and everyone who are not compatible with
the majority. People can easily dismiss others as they declare the minorities as marginals,
without considering the outcomes of their actions. Kindness and affection may come in ways we
are not used to, and when it comes to accepting it, as society, we need to be more patient. Not all
of us are aware of the stress and emotional instability we make other people experience. Just like
Ali and Emmi, if we realize what really matters is love and caring, as a community we can
experience acceptance and peace in harmony.