El Hedi ben Salem (c. 1935[1] – 1977) was a Moroccan actor, best known for his work with film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
[3] In early 1971, Salem met German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder at a gay bathhouse in Paris, and the two began a romantic relationship.
Fassbinder eventually cast Salem in the lead role in Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974), a film that explores xenophobia in post-World War II Germany.
In the film, Salem portrays a Moroccan immigrant living in West Germany who begins a relationship with an older German woman whom he eventually marries.
They fought frequently due in part to Salem's short temper, which turned violent when he drank.
Director Daniel Schmid, one of Fassbinder's close friends, later told film critic Roger Ebert that shortly after the break up, Salem got drunk and "went to a place in Berlin and stabbed three people.
[13] In 2012, a documentary on Salem's life titled My Name Is Not Ali, premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival.