Not that long ago, all you’d have to do to avoid being scammed was to trash an email from a Nigerian prince offering a family inheritance. 

Nowadays, we’re facing increasingly sophisticated and much more convincing scams, like the one at the heart of Maddelin McKenna’s debut feature film, Mad Rush, which is set to premiere to sold out audiences at the Melbourne International Film Festival in August, before heading west to screen at CinefestOZ in September.    

Mad Rush follows Madisha (Senuri Chandrani), a young woman who has just lost her job when she receives a call advising her of fraudulent activity on her bank account. What begins as a routine day quickly spirals into a strange and unsettling journey as she follows a series of bizarre instructions designed to “protect” her savings.

Described by McKenna as a reimagining of Alice in Wonderland set within an urban landscape, Mad Rush blends drama and comedy while exploring manipulation, uncertainty, and the ease with which ordinary people can become caught in elaborate scams.

McKenna has built an impressive career through acclaimed short films including Patterns of the Afternoon, Skates, and Nice Girls, earning recognition at festivals in Australia and internationally. Alongside her narrative work, she has directed commercial campaigns and fashion films while gaining valuable industry experience working with producers Tony Ayres and Andrea Denholm.

Cinema Australia spoke with Maddelin about the inspiration behind Mad Rush, the challenges of bringing her first feature to life, and why this story feels so relevant today.

“Your talent and skills can only get you so far. So much of it is based on audacity and confidence.“

Interview by Matthew Eeles

Take us back to the early beginnings of your filmmaking journey.

I don’t really remember a time when I didn’t want to be a filmmaker. I think, apart from a brief interest in hairdressing when I was about seven, I’ve always been in pursuit of filmmaking in a way. I was making films as a kid, and I really loved making them at high school, so I went on to study film at university. It’s always been part of my life and part of my creative interests.

What were you making as a kid?

Just home movies, plays, all of that stuff. I was just exploring my creativity in that way. It was such a fun thing to do.

What were you shooting with?

We had a VHS camera. For my 10th birthday party, I wrote a short film script and invited my friends over for a sleepover. That night we made the film, and my mum shot it on the VHS camera. We didn’t have proper editing software, so we had to do one take of everything and film it in order. I think it was about babysitting or something, and my little brother was in it. The next day, we showed it to my friends’ parents and had a little premiere for it. So filmmaking runs quite deep for me.

Do you re-watch those films?

Well, it’s really funny you say that because a couple of weeks ago I actually went back to my university at Swinburne and did a couple of lectures for the first and second-year film students. They showed my second-year film, which I hadn’t seen for over 10 years. I had to watch it three times because I did the lecture three times, and I was really prepared to cringe. I was feeling quite squeamish and, yes, I was cringing while watching it, but I was also quite proud and impressed with some of the stuff that I had written at 19 or 20 years old. It really felt like a full-circle moment to be preparing my first feature film while reflecting on something I made 10 years ago. I could see the similarities, but I could also see how much I’d grown as a screenwriter and director.

Considering that, how would you describe your evolution as a filmmaker between that time and Mad Rush?

I seem to be quite impacted by the environments I live in. I grew up in Eltham, which is a suburban area in Victoria. We lived on half an acre in quite a bushy area, and I really think that landscape was very prevalent in a lot of the short films I made when I was younger. Then I moved to the inner city in my 20s, and I can see the effects of living in the inner-city suburbs in my last short film, which I made in 2022, and now in Mad Rush.

In terms of my writing, I’ve grown a lot between then and Mad Rush. With Mad Rush, I really wanted to challenge myself in a different way as a screenwriter. I typically made things that were quite slow, sparse in dialogue, and meditative, and I loved making those kinds of films. But Mad Rush felt like it needed a punchier, more propulsive energy. I wanted to write a character who talks a lot and says a lot, and the film is really centred around all these different conversations. That presented a new challenge and excited me because it was something I hadn’t done before. Mad Rush is also meant to be a little humorous as well.

You worked as a production runner on the TV series Bloom. And you’ve also worked as an assistant to the great Tony Ayres. When you’re working in these environments, is there time to take notes and observe certain processes as you go, despite being so busy?

As a runner, it’s in the job description that you are quite literally just running around, so there’s really no time to do much else. You’re the first person on set and the last person to leave.

For Tony, it was a similar experience, but on a different scale. I was involved in a lot of writers’ rooms and meetings. The whole experience of working for him was its own film school in a way. Being part of a production company that develops TV shows really helped me understand how to write and develop projects, as well as the process of a writers’ room, the documentation you need to create, and the research involved in screenwriting, which I wasn’t privy to before working for Tony. I didn’t know any of that.

Working for Tony was full-time and full-on. I was also making a short film during that time and could only really find time to write and make it on weekends. I was typically someone who had one project on the go at a time, and Tony is so prolific and has multiple things happening at once. That was so inspiring and really motivating to see. Now I also have multiple projects on the go. The whole experience has been really helpful.

Even though he’s made some of the best Australian television in recent years, I really do miss Tony Ayres the filmmaker. His last film, Cut Snake, was underrated in my opinion.

I agree, although I was more familiar with his television work at the time. But after working for him, I got to see The Home Song Stories, which was so beautiful. He’s incredible. I really think he changed the landscape of Australian television with The Slap, which snowballed into this really great period for Australian TV.

Is TV something you’d like to get into?

Yeah, I think so. I don’t have anything that I’m developing at the moment in terms of television. I’d be quite interested in directing television more so than writing, but you never say never.

You come across as being a filmmaker beyond your years, which I’d say comes from confidence. Is that a correct assumption, and if so, where would you say that confidence comes from?

Confidence is just an illusion and a delusion. [Laughs].

I think making this film was a real lesson in pushing through those uncomfortable moments when I’m not feeling confident. Sometimes that can really stifle your creative pursuits because you’re constantly worrying whether it’s good enough. I certainly have a lot of those moments.

When I started developing Mad Rush three years ago, I was at a point where I was really sick of talking to myself like that and thinking like that. Your talent and skills can only get you so far. So much of it is based on audacity and confidence. I just decided that I couldn’t keep striving for something that was completely perfect. In the process of making something, you learn so much that makes you better going forward. That’s been one of the biggest lessons from making this film, and it’s also given me so much more confidence as a filmmaker.

Considering all of that, how would you describe your first day on the Mad Rush set?

The first day was crazy. [Laughs].

To be honest, I hadn’t been on a set in a very long time. I was very familiar with the city at that point because we’d scouted locations for many, many months. I knew the sound, the noise, and being out in all the elements would be a challenge, but directing was still such an overwhelming role. There are so many people who need something from you all the time.

That first day was quite overwhelming, experiencing all of that. I came away asking myself, “Do you really want to do this? This is crazy.” [Laughs]. But then I eased into it. I relaxed, and I think the first day will always be like that, no matter how much experience you have.

Were your cast and crew responsive?

Yeah, definitely. This was everyone’s first feature film as well. It was Senuri Chandrani’s first lead role in a feature film, and we’d had so many rehearsals and Zoom chats leading up to the shoot. We felt really comfortable around each other and had a clear understanding of who the character was, what the film was about, and what we were trying to achieve. It was the same with my cinematographer. Everything was so organised that there really weren’t any last-minute bumps we’d come up against on any given day. It was just about executing it.

Tell us about the true story that inspired Mad Rush, because it’s quite a phenomenal one.

A few years ago, my friend burst through my front door one afternoon with a tote bag full of cash and slumped down on my couch. She told me about how she’d spent the last few hours on the phone to people claiming they were from the Australian Taxation Office, and they had her doing all these things like withdrawing her savings from the bank and depositing it into a Bitcoin machine. That’s when it all clicked, and she realised, “Oh my God, I’m being scammed.”

I couldn’t quite believe it. You’re right, the true story is a phenomenal one. I couldn’t believe a scam like this existed, and that there were these faceless people puppeteering her into doing all these things. I found it really interesting and alarming that my friend believed them.

It got me thinking about the language they were using and the things they were saying to convince her they were really from organisations like the ATO, ASIO and the ACCC. Once I’d thought about all that, I also realised, “This is actually quite funny. It’s a ridiculous story, and there’s humour in it.” [Laughs]. My friend and I laugh about it now because the whole situation is quite silly.

About six months later, I read a really great article about a lawyer in New York who experienced a very similar scam and ended up handing over $50,000 in a shoebox. I kept thinking about it for a long time and started developing it as a short film. Then a lot of my friends encouraged me to turn it into a really low-budget, run-and-gun feature film. So I did.

I’m sure you had sympathy at the time, but while your friend was telling you this, were you already thinking about what a great movie it would make?

[Laughs]. That’s the downfall of having a filmmaker as a friend, right? In that exact moment, I wasn’t thinking that, but certainly very shortly afterwards I realised it felt like a really great film idea.

How did your friend react when you told her you wanted to make a movie about it?

She’s super supportive. She’s a very creative person and understands the industry. She consulted on the project, and I interviewed her to better understand how the scam unfolded. I say the film is based on something that happened to her, but it’s not a verbatim recreation of her experience.

Being in the presence of someone who had firsthand experience was so helpful, especially seeing her energy immediately after it happened. I knew the film needed to have this propulsive energy and had to feel chaotic. That was really helpful in creating the mood and tone of the piece.

While Mad Rush isn’t purely a surveillance film, films of that genre have been explored by Australian filmmakers over the years. Money Movers, Lone Wolf, and We’re Not Here to Fuck Spiders all come to mind, but none of them have quite reached the heightened level of anxiety that Mad Rush does. I know this question is a cliché, but did you reference other films throughout the writing process?

Yes and no. I think it’s hard not to be influenced by other films or other art when you’re making something. For me, there are two parallel things happening in Mad Rush. There’s the scam, and then there are these vignette conversations. It was about finding the right balance between the two.

I took inspiration from a variety of different films. The Safdie brothers’ first feature film, The Pleasure of Being Robbed, was a great reference, as was Run Lola Run, because they’re both 75-minute films of a similar ilk. Then there was Naked by Mike Leigh, about this wandering character who has these conversations with various people. And then there’s my favourite film of all time, The Cranes Are Flying by Mikhail Kalatozov. They all weave themselves into Mad Rush in one way or another.

I love that you’ve referenced a filmmaker’s first film rather than their most successful film deep into their filmography. First-time filmmakers really shouldn’t be reaching for the heights of something like E.T. as the benchmark for their debut.

Totally. [Laughs]. It’s really reaffirming. When I watch those earlier works by some of the great filmmakers, it makes my own goals as a filmmaker feel achievable.

Mad Rush can really get your heart racing at times. How do you know that those more energetic scenes are going to work so well, or is it just a matter of having the confidence to trust the process?

I think it’s a matter of having the confidence to trust the process. There was a lot of planning with certain shots, and we had a lot of rehearsals with the actors. But I’m an editor as well. I’m nowhere near as good as the actual editor of this film, Geri Docherty, but I do edit and I’m quite confident in the editing room. I think having that skill set is really helpful because it helps me understand what is and isn’t going to work. But with this film, so much of it was about learning how to make a film and being okay with making mistakes.

I’m so glad that you mentioned Geri, because it’s a great segue into my next question. Describe your experiences working with Geri over the years, as well as working with her on Mad Rush. And I should note for our readers that Geri also has the incredible feature film First Light in release at the moment.

Well, Geri is one of my very best friends. So I’d say we’re friends first and co-workers second, which works really well for us. I was fortunate enough to get a commercial directing job straight after shooting Mad Rush, which meant that I could afford to bring Geri, who was living in London at the time, onto the project. I was able to fly to London and spend two and a half weeks with her, where we did a lot of the heavy lifting on the edit. Prior to that, we were editing over Zoom, which was a crazy thing to do now that I think about it. You really do have to be in the same room as the editor.

Those two and a half weeks in London were so important. This whole process of making the film made me realise what is actually required of me at every stage, and that so much of directing also happens in the edit. Having someone like Geri, who is as clued into performance, themes and story as I am, is so invaluable. It’s great to have someone to bounce ideas off. She’s a really reassuring presence whenever I have moments of doubt. To have someone who had confidence in me and this film from the get-go is a beautiful thing.

She’s also very, very funny, and we laughed a lot. It got very silly in the edit sometimes, which was a great stress reliever. [Laughs].

That’s such a beautiful thing to hear. I know how stressful editing can be, so to hear that you both had so much fun, and that you’re both so encouraging of each other’s work, is beautiful.

It is. I’ve also gotten to know James Robinson, who directed First Light, and he’s so lovely and such a talented filmmaker. He was actually super helpful to my producer, Sarah Clayton, and me. We had a lot of questions in the lead-up to Mad Rush, and he was always happy to answer them. So yeah, I’m very supportive of all my friends’ work.

Senuri Chandrani is excellent here. I was so impressed by her captivating performance. Like the film itself, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. What made Senuri stand out throughout the audition process?

Well, funnily enough, I didn’t actually audition anyone for this film. Senuri and I met at the opening night of MIFF in 2022. We have mutual friends. She actually knows Geri and my cinematographer, Bonita Carzino. We were all there chatting, and she was in Of an Age, which was the opening night film that year. I thought she was really brilliant in that.

I also think she’s so beautiful and so charming, and I’m always trying to keep an eye out for actors who are at a similar stage in their career to me. I was always thinking about her in the back of my mind, and as I was writing and developing Mad Rush, I kept coming back to Senuri.

She had also written and recorded her own monologue, which I managed to get my hands on. The monologue she wrote was so similar to something her character, Madisha, would say. So, in a way, she’d already done her own audition tape through that monologue, which she’d written and recorded a year or two earlier. I watched it and thought, “Oh my God, this is basically Madisha.” I reached out to her, and she was very keen. I was so happy. She’s fantastic.

How great is Of an Age, by the way? And you’re right, Senuri is great in it.

That film is brilliant. Goran Stolevski is an incredible filmmaker.

I noticed that your lead Mad Rush cast have all worked in theatre. Was this intentional on your behalf? Do theatre actors bring a certain quality to a performance?

I’m so glad you asked this question! Yes, it was definitely intentional. I’m an avid theatre-goer, and I’d say it was maybe my first love, but I’ve just found myself working in film. I grew up going to the theatre a lot with my parents.

For Mad Rush, I wanted heightened performances to an extent, and I think by casting people with theatre experience, they’re not afraid to go there. If someone only has film and television experience, it might be a bit daunting to fully commit in that regard. William McKenna [Tom], Burt LaBonté [Eski], and Hannah Camilleri [Jo] all work in theatre, and Hannah also does sketch comedy.

I want to continue working with actors who have theatre experience. Something that Senuri and I spoke about a lot was that we really wanted Madisha to have agency and strong opinions. I think MIFF described her as being spiky, vulnerable and naïve as she falls down this crazy rabbit hole of the scam.

We needed to create a character that audiences would believe could end up in that situation. I really didn’t want Madisha to be a passive observer of the world. She’s very much a driving force behind the chaos happening around her, and Senuri wasn’t afraid to embrace that.

I love hearing filmmakers’ opinions on this next question because I always get a varied response. Did you take a guerrilla-style approach to filmmaking on the streets, or did you do it by the book with permits?

In the City of Melbourne, you can actually film without a permit. That was certainly a drawcard and one of the reasons we wanted to film in the CBD. So it was very much guerrilla-style. There were some locations where we did have permits, but for many of them we were really just in amongst it.

It’s quite funny because people in the city don’t really care. There’s always someone doing something a bit odd or random. We didn’t get stopped by anyone, and we were never asked for our permit. People are too busy going to and from wherever they need to be.

We did have some interesting incidents, though. The day we were filming on the Parliament steps happened to be a Saturday afternoon, and what you can’t see in the film is that there were about 15 different wedding parties around us having their photos taken. [Laughs]. So we were trying to film that scene right in the middle of all of them.

As a director, do you feel more vulnerable being out in the open than you would on an interior set?

Definitely. Even when we were scouting, I felt quite vulnerable. But that’s not to say I didn’t have my blinkers on. You don’t really have time to think about or worry about what everyone else is looking at.

Mad Rush was shot on digital, but it looks like it was shot on film. It has a beautiful graininess to it, and the freeze frames in the opening scene are reminiscent of ’70s and ’80s filmmaking. Can you talk us through this creative choice? I’ve noticed it in some of your previous work too.

Well, my cinematographer, Bonita, and I have worked together before. We’ve known each other since film school, and we’ve made a lot of short films and fashion films on film. We love the filmic look, but our budgets don’t love shooting on film. [Laughs].

So it was kind of a no-brainer that we’d shoot this project digitally while emulating that filmic look. I think it suits the gritty nature of the Melbourne we’re depicting. The visual aspect of filmmaking is incredibly important to me, and it’s something that’s carefully considered in all the work I do.

Bonita and I are always trying to do something different. The last short film we made together was a 16mm black-and-white experimental film. Neither of us had shot black-and-white film before, so that was a great challenge. With this one, it was about making our first feature together, shooting on the Alexa 35, and creating that filmic look with sweeping camera angles, surveillance-style footage and all of those visual elements. It was very ambitious for both of us.

Talk us through the church scene. We won’t say where it appears in the film, but I’d love to hear about your experiences creating it, and filming it.

The church scene is one I’m really proud of from a writing perspective. Shooting there was also very calming. I found the location while scouting by myself before I’d finished writing the film. I often wander around looking for inspiration.

I’m not a religious person, but I do wander into churches because I find the iconography and architecture quite beautiful, and they’re always peaceful places. I walked into that particular church, looked around, and sat there for a while. I remember thinking it could be a place where Madisha finds the quietness and solitude she’s been searching for.

As for the two church cleaners, I met Nikka Kalashnikova and Michael Andre a few years earlier when I was in an employment assistance program. They were bickering in the corner, and I thought their dynamic was hilarious. I got chatting to them and discovered they’re filmmakers and writers as well. Nikka is a singer, and their daughter is an amazing artist.

I’d been thinking about them for a long time, and while writing the script I wondered if I could create two characters for them to play, because they’d acted in their own work before. So I wrote the scene, reached out to them, and they were very keen.

What I really love about the scene is that Madisha is seeking guidance. In the end, the guidance she receives comes from two humble church cleaners through their story of how they met and came to work together. All of the conversations she has throughout the film revolve around work, employment and money. In a way, the church becomes a confessional where she begins to realise what she needs to do to redeem herself.

Ultimately, I think the film is about self-forgiveness and making amends for your past mistakes, and I think that scene reflects those themes really well.

Are you worried that viewers might interpret this scene as being too religious?

No, not really. She does say, “Do you really think all of this is…” so she doesn’t really know either. Madisha is quite naïve. Earlier in the film she says, “I think I should speak to a lawyer.” I don’t think she fully understands these big concepts she’s referring to. It’s more that she’s heard people say those are the things you’re supposed to do.

Perhaps she thinks walking into a church will provide some guidance, when really it’s all within herself. So it’s not something I’ve worried about. I simply find churches quite meditative. They’re a nice place to sit, much like a garden.

Mad Rush is a love letter of sorts to Melbourne. Talk us through capturing this particular side of the city on film, because it certainly doesn’t look like the Melbourne we’re used to seeing in movies.

Yeah, it’s funny because when I started writing this, I was actually in Sydney for three months over winter. It was sunny, and I was walking along the beach. I was probably missing family and friends, and whenever I’d FaceTime them, the grey Melbourne skies were always in the background. Maybe there was a part of me that was missing Melbourne’s seasons and that moodiness you can feel there.

I remember thinking, “This is the Australia everyone thinks of, but it’s not the Australia I experience living in Melbourne.”

When it came to shooting Melbourne, I wasn’t interested in showing trams or Flinders Street Station, although they’re pretty unavoidable. I wanted to capture parts of the city that haven’t really been shown on screen before.

We scouted locations for eight or nine months. Some I did with my producer and cinematographer, and some I explored by myself. I think if you wander around a place long enough, it starts to reveal itself in strange and interesting ways. That certainly happened for me.

Mad Rush will screen at the Melbourne International Film Festival from Saturday, 14 August. Details here.

Mad Rush will screen at CinefestOZ on Friday, 4 September. Details here.

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