Re-scripting the final scene of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's 1927 opera The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahogany, Jesse Jones's film tells the story of a city outside of society, whose inhabitants are offered a space of 'infinite freedom' that manifests as an excessive indulgence of pleasures, as long as they pay enough money.

Mahogany, shot in the Australian outback, re-stages the fictitious city in the wake of its collapse through dialogue between the city's architect Begbick and a 'Whisper Choir' made up of inhabitants. While Brecht intended his city as a criticism of the false freedoms of the Weimar Republic, in her rescripting Jones takes Brecht and Weill's location and historical moment as a starting point for a critique of present political conditions.

Samstag is pleased to present this limited screening in complement to Jones’ 2021 Adelaide//International exhibition Tremble Tremble.

Screening session now over.