The Beauties from Leipzig

In May 1989, just a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the first "Miss Leipzig" contest was held in Leipzig, a competition that required not only beauty but also knowledge of the city and its history. Leipzig photographer Gerhard Gäbler won 20 of the candidates for a double portrait that showed them at work and in their private lives. 18 years later, the filmmaker and the photographer sought out the now 40-year-olds and asked them about their motivation at the time. The film documents resolute, ambitious, intelligent and self-confident women who are representative of a generation that was often able to make more of the opportunities offered by the "turnaround" than those ten or twelve years older.