
Jon Bell’s Sundance horror movie “The Moogai”, based on his short film from 2020, revolves around the story of blown-up white government abducting Aboriginal children termed as ‘Stolen Generations’ – a story which resonates in Australia. Watching this film, however, I could not omit the feeling that America quite limits Bell’s degree of aggressive in this first feature because this was one bold statement film– which was of short length yet captivating with signs rife but no center or storyline that provides a conclusion to the signs.
The feeling that the story is developed in the Aboriginal context itself increases the interest of the audience owing to the unique beginning, where two African girls are being chased by men in suits in an Aboriginal reserve in present-day Australia. This is further heightened when they are told that they will one day inherit the title of moogai, a mystifying demon who uses dark shadows to hunt for little girls. Supposedly, a couple of sisters tried to save other girls from this demon.
On the other hand, the central storyline narrates events that occurred in recent times. Ruth, one of the girls who immigrated, (Tessa Rose, who as an older woman in this film manages to age rather gracefully), sustains some remnants on her face as a result of contact with the Moogai. This is more like a family saga as we meet Ruth who visits her biological daughter Sarah who has recently been in contact and is expecting, Sarah’s daughter Ruth and Sarah became in contact and are living together after Sarah gave birth. During Jacob’s birth, he experiences strange vocal activity and some happenings that indicate that Moogai has arrived and, seems to possess the urge to take Jacob next and this event completely inverts Sarah from which she goes back to an almost self-loathing violent episode and becomes fixated over him, which is somewhat.. odd, to say the least, but lacks more positive aspects of oneself.
Although “The Moagai”, only serves the purpose of helping comprehend most of the situations and their context within the movie, they rather fall after within the plot which is quite unfortunate given the rest of the picture. The scope for context is amazing, although the end result is disappointing.
It is a film that cannot decide which genre it wants to belong to, and for this reason, tries to incorporate multiple styles, but doesn’t manage to pull off any one of them. It is a cinematic explorative work that is riddled with poor fixes on timing. This is in part due to the uncontrolled misplacement of the puzzle pieces where the all too revealing shock, sentiment and enigma overlap each other. In contrast defective cut scenes, one after another, result in a total disintegration of the plausibility of the jumps and surprises and their subsequent series.
The film is rich in intricate themes, however, not all of them are fully utilized and there is some depth missing. For instance, Sarah, a light-skinned woman, has to grapple with physically and emotionally distressing transitions. She also has to think of the fact that she has a holocaust history where Jacob Content is her daughter but instead of a light-skinned child, she is picturing a white-skinned daughter who was forcefully taken away from her mother. But in this particular kind of self-reflection and analysis, Sarah is expected to be worried that she is in fact biased about something, and this is the kind of articulation germane to the Akira that Pase deserves rather than getting lost in the subtext and the total of the film’s exegesis. The camera does not spend much time focusing on one particular space or one person, there are complexities that can arise from the importance of one specific space and the significance of a person’s particular point of view and which thinks about and through them.
The Moogai is often voted a ‘long-armed’ thing which, could be understood as the long arm of the law. However, as has been revealed through the comparative phrases alluded to the film, this moogai gentleman does in fact onde in a way which The Bell’s intergenerational trauma narrative. Whether the Moagai is sold as not the most frightening-looking thing bears the question as to its visual experience or aesthetics are not entering that nightmare.
White assimilation would appear to be the theme of Sarah’s right from her being adopted by white parents to the consideration of Ellen’s Indigenous culture, which she is less approbative of, the treatment of her black daughter and husband, several white cops, doctors and lawyers who were also found in the movie and who rather ordinarily brutalized Aboriginal subjects. They are not in the story, but they do seem to concentrate on Moagais more as peripheral elements to the ‘whiteness’ side of the story that fits ‘social’ characterization very poorly and only marginally relates to the plot of Moagsis.
In the end, the film contains a strand of culture which when bound into the narrative solves all seeming problems somewhat too easily. The only one relevant matter that remains unclosed by the time the movie reaches its conclusion is whether Sebben could act or not, for Bell’s all-oppressive directing style seeks to obscure any of her acting. She more than holds her own against Rose, who instead gives Ruth too much sense of suffering and stark tenderness. But, sad for that, her own part as Sarah goes beyond in as much as she is dictated it is necessary to speak and also to act in the most insensitive and awkward way with a lack of complexity, and texture that could allow for depth of emotion, dread and despair that is fully human.
“The Moogai” is, in essence, an Australian film that has a unique visual storytelling approach that may relate to the audience. It attempts to foster a sense of social relevance within Australia, and in doing so, conveys an almost scholarly feel to the people it seeks to appeal to. These elements are often buried in a minute detail in history yet resonate with the very historical violence, trauma, and injustice, that these films seek to portray, and the reason these films chose to exclude them is due to the monotony and lack of tension in how these aspects were designed and integrated.
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