The Story
Charlotte, a young freelance journalist, is moving into a new apartment. While lugging boxes in, she meets her upstairs neighbour, Brandon.
He’s friendly enough but something about their initial encounter rubs her the wrong way. Around the apartment complex, his increasingly brash and overfamiliar behaviour makes her feel more and more ill at ease.
Everyone around Charlotte assures her, “he’s just being friendly” – and this kicks off a spiral of questioning and self-doubt. Am I too sensitive? Am I the weird one? Am I justified in feeling uncomfortable?
The film tracks Charlotte in her journey to set up a new home, a place where she feels safe and comfortable – fearing that the price of that comfort will be an eventual confrontation with Brandon…
![]()
Why now?
We feel this is a very timely film that examines the fractured nature of understanding and communication that currently exists between men and women. We are passionate about starting conversation around these gulfs, conversation that is essential in creating a more unified, open culture.
We are living in a very interesting time where we are beginning to question and push back on some of the patriarchal values that previously allowed a lot of damaging behaviour to take place. Like in any time of sweeping positive change, there are invariably people who are caught in middle, confused by the seemingly shifting goalposts of right and wrong.
This film shines a light on such a pair and the psychological effects it creates on a micro interpersonal level. It's our driving hope to create art that can explore and question these divides without judging it's characters. It’s tense and neurotic and extremely vital.
The Team
We are a passionate team of creatives who are committed to bringing probing, human stories to the screen. This project is important to all of us as we believe in the potency and timeliness of it's themes.
This film will be similar in tone and content to our previous work Angelfish which you can currently watch as a Staff Pick Premiere on Vimeo.
Angelfish garnered a huge online response, amassing over 150,000 views in it's first week.
Jessica Murphy - Lead (Charlotte)
Since completing her BA in theatre/media in Bathurst, Jessica has performed in a number of screen and theatre productions. Online she can be seen in comedian Neel Kolhatkar's viral videos on Youtube, as well as two ABC Freshblood webseries and a number of independent short films. In 2017, Jessica portrayed key characters in the Blair Milan Award Winning comedy plays, Crackers and The Glass System.
Rupert Reid - Lead (Brandon)
Rupert began his screen career in the long-running Australian TV dramas Heartbreak High and Blue Heelers. Over the years, Rupert has starred in many high profile film and TV projects including The Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. In 2017, Rupert starred in the SBS series Sunshine as well as appearing on the stage in Redline production's The Village Bike.
Dane McCusker - Writer/Director
Dane is an award-winning Filmmaker from Sydney, Australia. Festival acceptances include the Academy-qualifying Aspen Shortsfest, Hollyshorts and the FIAPF accredited POFF Shorts. Dane’s short film Angelfish was nominated for an Australian Director’s Guild Award and saw him shortlisted for the Lexus Short Film Fellowship. Dane was a 2014 recipient of Raw Nerve Funding from Screen NSW for his short film Last Bites.
Michael Steel - Cinematographer
Michael is a cinematographer with 20 years experience in the Australian film and television industry. Michael and Dane have previously worked together on three short films including the award-winning Reception. In 2015 a feature film he shot, Beast, screened at TIFF where it was nominated for the Discovery Award. He is currently shooting ABC's television series Black Comedy.
Kate Deegan - Editor
Kate attended The Australian Film Television and Radio School where she edited films Grace, Midnight Express and Angelfish. Along side her award-winning short films, Kate has edited on productions such as The Checkout, Hidden Japan and ABC's critically acclaimed The Killing Season. In 2016 she cut the webseries Thirty which won Best Dramedy at NYC WebFest.
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
Thank you so such much for taking an interest in our film. This project couldn't happen without the support of so many generous backers. Anything you choose to pledge means a great deal to us and will go a long way to making this film a reality.
Thank you again to being a part of our project and helping us bring The Complex to the screen!
