Belief: The Possession of Janet Moses

New Zealand documentary detailing the tragic case of a young Wainuiomata woman who died during a mākutu lifting – a case that made international headlines in 2007.

"In October 2007, 22-year-old Janet Moses died and a 14-year-old female relation was hospitalised during a mākutu lifting in the Wellington suburb of Wainuiomata. In 2009 nine members of Janet's family, all siblings of her mother or their spouses, were charged in relation to her tragic death. Their trial was reported around the world and widely portrayed as a head-on-head collision of Western law and traditional belief.

"In Belief, David Stubbs, a pākehā filmmaker who grew up in Wainuiomata, proceeds with impressive tact and sensitivity to understand and describe just what happened. He weaves together witness interviews, items of public record and re-enactments to draw us into the nightmare experienced by Janet and her whanau. Invoking traditions they haven’t entirely mastered, they are consumed by their anxiety to rescue her from the torments of her illness." (New Zealand International Film Festival)

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