Jon Bell's 'The Moogai'.

‘The Moogai’ brings dose of reality to psychological horror

A Moogai is a fictional spirit or monster in the Bundjalung language, but for Bundjalung/Wiradjuri nations writer-director Jon Bell, the Moogai is grounded in a shocking reality.

“We’d had our own sort of personal experiences,” he says. “I had an uncle who was stolen. My missus was running from welfare fellas coming to take her when she was little and my mum and my father-in-law had those experiences.”

It continues even today with the children of First Nations people at far higher risk of be...