Comrade Couture

The film is a journey into the wild parallel world of the fashionists and Bohemians of East Berlin. It was a fantasy world within East Germany’s very restricted everyday life. Here you could break ranks, be individual and provocative. The most important identifying feature of this nether world was the development of a personal style, because you couldn’t buy such a thing in GDR times. This film tells of the longing, passions and dreams which were tested, experienced and lived out in the shadow of the Wall. Director Marco Wilms, ex GDR model himself, finds the heroes of his youth in East Berlin: designer Sabine von Oettingen, photographer Robert Paris, and stylist and hairdresser Frank Schäfer, and explores with them their shining nether world lives. A humorous documentary about creativity as the elixir of life – and the neverending longing for individual freedom. —mostra.org