Festivals - Sundance Film Festival 2021 : Strawberry mansion will have its world premiere

By Mulder, 04 january 2021

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 (Kentucker Audley) travels to a remote farmhouse to audit the dreams of Arabella “Bella” Isadora (Penny Fuller), 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 monetized—where even our unconscious minds have been colonized by advertising. With its wildly expressive color schemes and inventive dreamscapes, Strawberry Mansion also conjures an optimistic future through a retreat to our analog past. Audley and Fuller are disarmingly funny as the intergenerational (and interdimensional) lovers, while Grace Glowicki is affecting as the young Bella of Preble’s dreams. Electronic musician Dan Deacon scores this strange vision with shimmering synths and hypnotic strings.

Synopsis :
In a future where the government records dreams and taxes them, a dream auditor gets caught up in the dreams of an aging eccentric.

Strawberry mansion (USA)
Written and directed by Albert Birney, Kentucker Audley
Produced by Sarah Winshall, Taylor Shung, Emma Hannaway, Matisse Rifai
Executive Producers : Theresa Steele Page, Tim Headington, James Belfer, Adam Belfer, Andrew Belfer, Elaine Thomas, Todd Remis, David Moscow, Alex Plapinger, Adam Kersh
Starring Penny Fuller, Kentucker Audley, Grace Glowicki, Reed Birney, Linas Phillips, Constance Shulman
Music by Dan Deacon
Cinematography : Tyler Davis
Production Designer : Becca Brooks Morrin
Costume Designer : Mack Reyes
Sound Design : Matt Scott Baker
Release date : January 30, 2021 (Sundance)
Running time : 90 minutes

Premiere : jan. 30 - 3:00am // second screening : jan. 31 - 4:00pm (local time)

(Source : press release)