Robert Paris

This film undertakes a journey into the amazing parallel universe of East Berlin’s fashion designers and experts in the art of survival. For, in the midst of the constraints of life in the GDR, there existed a fantasy world where it was possible to dance to another tune, be individual and even provocative. The most important characteristic of this bohemian scene was one’s per- sonal style. But this certainly wasn’t something that could be bought off the peg in the GDR. In this parallel universe it was up to you to create your own individual image – with your own hands. This film tells the story of the desires, the passion and the dreams that were tried and tested, lived and performed in the shadow of the Berlin Wall.

Sven Marquardt might be the most famous bouncer worldwide. But beside standing in front of the legendary techno club Berghain in Berlin, he is also a well-known and skilled photographer. Long before the Berlin Wall came down, Marquardt portrayed the subcultural East-Berlin scene. His black and white photography illustrates it as voluptuous, laid-back, dirty and existential. Even if shot by daylight, his work is permeated by darkness, ecstasy and night.

So lange ich fliehen noch kann, da schütze ich mich

Berlin, the German capital again, a few years after the fall of the Wall. The city in upheaval is also changing the lives of its inhabitants. A young photographer experiences these changes as a rupture, he looks into an unclear, unsettling future and increasingly feels like a stranger in his old city. He and his friends from the generation of the children of the Wall try to find a new identity without losing the old one. Young artists who fail the profitability test of the market economy. In his search, Robert Paris ends up far away, in India. Back in Berlin, he started developing photos again - the first in years...