Ein Traum in Erdbeerfolie

COMRADE COUTURE is a journey through the wild underground world of fashion and so-called “survival artists“ in East Berlin. It was a world of make-believe amidst the restrictive daily life of the GDR. Here you could march to a different beat, be individual, and provocative. The most important distinguishing characteristic of this scene was your own personal style, as this was not for sale in the former East Germany. Subculture space was the place you could reinvent yourself.
The film imparts the desires, passions and dreams that were attempted, experienced and contrived in the shadow of the Berlin Wall. Director Marco Wilms, himself a model back then at a GDR fashion institute, revives this unique attitude towards life of economic carefreeness and the radical need to be different in the Here and Now. He catches up with the heros of his East Berlin youth: Sabine von Oettingen - a designer, Robert Paris - a photographer, and Frank Schäfer - a stylist and hairdresser and has them recount their glitzy subculture life. After two decades the members and friends of the legendary East Berlin avant-garde fashion theater meet for a reunion of the “Chic Charmant and Dauerhaft” (The chic, charming and eternal) and “Allerleirauh” (All Kinds of Fur) at a 'subversive' East Block party event initiated by director Marco Wilms.
COMRADE COUTURE is a humorous film about creativity as a life force – and the never-ending desire for individual freedom.