'In A Country That No Longer Exists', About The Fashion Scene In Communist East Berlin, Trailer Launches (EXCLUSIVE)

Munich-based sales agency Beta Cinema has released the international trailer (below ) for "In a Land That No Longer Exists", which will have its international premiere on October 21 in the competition section of the Rome Film Festival.

Aelrun Goette's feature debut, released Thursday in Germany by Tobis, is inspired by that from the director's experiences in East Germany in the late 80s, when she worked as a model for the fashion magazine Sibylle, the so-called "Vogue of the East".

The action takes place in East Berlin in the early summer of 1989, a few months before the fall from the wall. 18-year-old Suzie is thrown headlong into the vibrant fashion scene of socialist East Germany when a photo of her lands on the cover of Sibylle.

With glamorous Rudi she delves into the underground subculture working on their own fashion designs fantastic. When she falls in love with the talented and rebellious photographer Coyote, her life changes as she experiences the freedom she has always dreamed of. But as Suzie's star as a model rises, Coyote has other plans, and Suzie is asked to betray her friends.

Goette saw the film as an "opportunity to broaden people's vision" of East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic. "It can certainly open the door and invite people to see the defunct GDR through different eyes," she says. "In the dictatorship, there were not only perpetrators, victims and contemporary witnesses, but also strong, powerful and savage people, who dreamed of freedom and seized it."

Regarding her own time in the GDR, she recalls "it was about not give up, despite all the odds. After being arrested for a minor offense, she found her options limited. "I couldn't finish high school and had to learn a trade that I didn't want. I I was placed under surveillance and later found out in my Stasi file that evening classes were also off limits for me."

She adds: "At the same time, I felt a freedom at the time that I didn't didn't feel after the fall of the GDR. We went to parties and fled the police from the rooftops, we sold self-sewn t-shirts on the Baltic Sea and won plastic bags full of money which we then blew at the Metropol Hotel. […] I learned the level of resilience I needed to survive after the Wall came down.”

The film stars the discovery Marlene Burow, Sabin Tambrea ("Ku'damm", "Narcissus and Goldmund"), David Schütter ("Never Look Away", "Barbarians"), Claudia Michelsen ("Ku'damm", "Blame Game") and Jördis Triebel ("West", "Dark").

Cinematography is by Benedict Neuenfels ("I'm Your Man", "The Counterfeiters"); the set designer was Silke Buhr ("Berlin Alexanderplatz", "The Lives of Others"); and the costumes were created by Regina Tiedeken (“Das Perfekte Geheimnis”, “Rocca Changes the World”).

Tanja Ziegler produced the film for Ziegler Film; it was co-produced by Tobis Productions, Studio Babelsberg, Gretchenfilm, RBB, ARD Degeto, WDR, MDR and SWR, in collaboration with ARTE. The co-producers were Magnus Vortmeyer, Tobias Alexander Seiffert and Peter Eiff for Tobis; Christoph Fisser and Charlie Woebcken for Studio Babelsberg, and Annegret Weitkämper-Krug for Gretchenfilm.

It was supported by Deutscher Filmförderfonds, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung, Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Filmförderungsanstalt and MFG Filmförderung.