PLAN 75

This peculiar and melancholic film, which won the Special Golden Camera Award (The Caméra d'Or) at the Cannes Film Festival last year, is set in the near future. The Japanese government, seeking to “lighten” the burden of its growing elderly population, creates a special program for citizens over 75 to end their lives with logistical support and a monetary grant of 1000 dollars. Michi, healthy and self-sufficient, is forced to resort to this state-supported suicide program, Plan 75, after losing her job one day. Contrary to what might be expected, this drama revolving around Michi, a government official named Hiromu, and young Filipino nurse Maria, is not satirical or dystopian, but instead offers a sobering proposition about euthanasia.