In a Land that No Longer Exists: Striking a Pose in the GDR

Suzie Schultz was one of the few East German women to wear her country’s Haute Couture. That was because the GDR fashion industry produced its pret-a-porter collections solely for export to the West, in exchange for hard currency. They still had to drape the clothes over pretty models, so that was where she came in. However, she ran afoul of the Stasi because of her friendships with gay and otherwise undesirable colleagues in screenwriter-director Aelrun Goette’s In a Land that No Longer Exists, which is currently available on outbound international American flights.

It is early 1989. Viewers should know what that means. The Stasi is strenuously trying to prevent it, but obviously they will fail. Regardless, when the college-bound Schultz is caught with a copy of Orwell’s 1984, she is banned from university and assigned a menial factory job as punishment. From what her mechanic father hears from clients, she got off easy. That does not make her proletariat co-workers’ hostility any easier to take. Then one fateful night, “Coyote” a freelance fashion photographer takes a candid Bill Cunningham-style picture of her that Sibylle, the leading GDR fashion magazine, publishes.

The publisher is hesitant to sign Schultz to a full-time contract, but her gay assistant Rudi coaches her to walk and carry herself like a proper model. Coyote’s “celebration of labor” spread shot at Schultz’s workplace seals the deal. Not surprisingly, Schultz grows increasingly close to Rudi as a friend and Coyote as a lover. However, their “anti-social” tendencies could make further trouble for her with the Stasi. In fact, it will not be the dissident Coyote whom they demand she inform upon. Instead, they want her to dish dirt on Rudi, solely due to his sexuality.

Schultz is a fictional character, but her story is directly inspired by Goette’s own experiences as a fashion model in East Germany. It is a tragic and provocative narrative and a timely reminder of the pervasive homophobia of the Soviet-dominated Socialist regimes. Goette also captures the arbitrariness and the pettiness of the Stasi’s punitive measures. There is little nostalgia in Land that No Longer Exists, except for the giddily rebellious art shows staged by Rudi’s circle of friends.

Marlene Burow is a bit of a cold fish as Shultz and as a model, she definitely looks like an early representative of the “waif” class. However, she forges some rather poignant chemistry with Sabin Tambrea’s Rudi and Zoe Hoche, as her bratty 12-year-old sister Kerstin. Tambrea brings great dignity to Rudi, elevating the character above a mere symbolic victim of Communism. Plus, Jordis Triebel really helps humanize average East Germans playing the sympathetic brigade leader, Gisela, her only friend at the factory, who carries over to her new life.

Goette vividly illustrates the absurdity of East Germany’s high fashion industry. It is a first-class period production and a worthy examination of coercive state oppression. Goette’s film is also another example of how in-flight entertainment is so overlooked as a distribution stream. I never heard of any New York festival screenings for this title, nor have I seen it on any streaming services, but there it is, on American Airlines. Since it is set in the fashion world, it features a fair amount of sex and nudity, so you might want to wait until the rest of your row is asleep to watch it, but it is definitely a fascinating film. Recommended for both fashionistas and Cold Warriors, In a Land that No Longer Exists is currently available on American Airlines South American-bound flights.