Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) was a German film director, screenwriter, and actor, a central and extraordinarily prolific figure of the New German Cinema. In a career spanning just over a decade, he directed over forty feature films, exploring the contradictions of post-war Germany through a style inspired by Hollywood melodrama. His works critically analyze power dynamics, social marginalization, and bourgeois hypocrisy. Among his most celebrated films are *Ali: Fear Eats the Soul* (1974), which won the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes, *The Marriage of Maria Braun* (1979), his greatest international success, and the monumental television series *Berlin Alexanderplatz* (1980). His career culminated in winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for *Veronika Voss* (1982), shortly before his premature death. His intense and provocative body of work has established him as one of the most influential auteurs of European cinema in the second half of the 20th century.