The film revolves around the romance that develops between Emmi, an elderly German woman, and Ali, a Moroccan migrant worker in postwar West Germany.

Emmi, a 60-year-old window cleaner and widow, enters a bar, driven in by the rain and wanting to listen to the music being played inside.

The barmaid, Barbara, goads Ali, a Moroccan Gastarbeiter (guest worker) in his late thirties, to ask Emmi to dance.

Emmi's sadness about this rejection fades as her optimism resurfaces and she decides that she and Ali should take a holiday together to escape the discrimination, convinced that upon their return, they will have been missed and be welcomed back.

Wanting to get back with her old friends after their apparent renewed respect, Emmi begins to neglect Ali and adopt some of their attitudes toward him.

Emmi visits Ali at work, where he pretends he doesn't know her; his workmates make fun of her age, calling her his "Moroccan grandmother".

Irm Hermann, who plays Krista, had a turbulent relationship with Fassbinder in real life, having been quoted as saying of him, "He couldn't conceive of my refusing him, and he tried everything.

[3][4] The original German title Angst essen Seele auf is deliberately grammatically incorrect, translating literally as "Fear eat up soul".

Ali's poor German grammar is translated literally in the film's English subtitles, which are consequently full of grammatical errors.

The most overt homage is the scene in which Emmi's son kicks in the television (an important symbol in All That Heaven Allows) after finding out that his mother has married a north African.

Spectatorship in the film embodies social oppression against the marginalized, yet ironically, such distancing diminishes when the neighbourhood sees utilitarian value in Emmi and Ali as "productive and consuming bodies".

[9] The Blu-Ray contains the contents of both discs of the 2003 DVD release, which include interviews with actress Brigitte Mira and editor Thea Eymes.

"[11] Gene Moskowitz of Variety gave it a similarly positive review, calling the film "Not showy for exploitation, too observant and cool for robust hypoing".

[12] Vincent Canby of The New York Times dissented somewhat, calling it a "courageous attempt" and praising Mira and Salem's performances, while criticizing the movie's "posterlike blandness".

The website's critical consensus reads "Regarded as one of the high-water marks in German New Wave cinema of the 1970s, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul is at once an intense portrayal of a relationship and a tribute to one of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film heroes, Douglas Sirk.

"[16] Writing for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw calls Mira and Salem's performance "superb", and "The most purely lovable characters I have ever seen on a movie screen".