Angst vor der Angst

Everything seems to be just fine. Margot’s marriage is going smoothly, there are no financial troubles; she does household chores and cares devotedly for the all-beloved daughter. But one day she is befallen by an inexplicable fear, which then never lets go of her again. Her life goes off track. In contrast to other Fassbinder melodramas about women such as "Martha" or "Angst essen Seele auf", in "Angst vor der Angst", one can never discern the root cause of the malady plaguing the protagonist. Nevertheless Fassbinder did not consider "Angst vor der Angst" a film about mental illness, but rather about the everyday life of an ordinary middle-class nuclear family. An almost prophetic film: three decades later, inexplicable states of fear have become an affliction spread far and wide throughout the population.