Strawberry Mansion

In the not-too-distant future, an all-seeing surveillance state conducts “dream audits” to collect taxes on the unconscious lives of the populace. Mild-mannered government agent James Preble travels to a remote farmhouse to audit the dreams of Arabella “Bella” Isadora, an eccentric, aging artist. Entering Bella’s vast VHS archive, which contains a lifetime of dreams, Preble stumbles upon a secret that offers him a chance at love – and hope for escape.

Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney’s playfully surreal romantic fantasy envisions a world not so different from our own: a glitchy digital dystopia where every human experience is monetised – where even our unconscious minds have been colonised by advertising. With its wildly expressive colour schemes and inventive dreamscapes, Strawberry Mansion also conjures an optimistic future through a retreat to our analogue past.