The film that changed my life: Sandra Hebron

Sandra Hebron is the artistic director of the London film festival, which opens on Wednesday. I met her when we shared national jury duties at the 22nd International İstanbul Film Festival / 2003. She is a friend of Turkish Films than and a Fassbinder film with a Turkish character made an impact on her years ago.

Mavi Boncuk |
Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)

Fear Eats the Soul is about Emmi, a German cleaning lady in her 60s, who falls in love with a Turkish guest worker called Ali. The first time I saw it was as a student in the mid-80s in Sheffield, at a fantastic repertory cinema called the Anvil.

I found this film so compelling because it's profoundly political while also being deeply personal – a love story but also a swingeing attack on mid-70s Germany, the period it's made and set in. You get a real sense of how much prejudice Ali faces as a Turkish worker and how that spills over into Emmi's life because she's having a relationship with him. There's a scene where they dance together in a down-at-heel bar, the two of them alone together on the dancefloor. It's an incredibly tender moment, but it's also when you realise their relationship is destined to end tragically. I found that incredibly moving.

I was dabbling in making films at the time and it made me realise I would be a better film-maker if I watched a broader range of films. Then I became more interested in curating, which is what I do now.

I saw Fear Eats the Soul more than 20 years ago, but it's something I return to, and I still find those scenes upsetting.

Poster image Source: Posterman