Also in cinemas

PLAN 75 (15, 113 mins) Writer-director Chie Hayakawa contemplates Japan’s ageing population in a provocative debut feature which is tethered to a fictional government-sanctioned programme of voluntary euthanasia for all citizens aged 75 and over.

Hiromu (Hayato Isomura) works for Plan 75 and he is one smiling face of an organisation that cajoles the elderly into willingly signing their own death warrants.

Every day, Hiromu casually dips his toes into murky moral waters until his uncle Yukio (Taka Takao) applies for Plan 75.

A crisis of conscience coincides with former hotel cleaner Michi (Chieko Baisho) also signing up for a personalised death package.

She is reluctant to accept unemployment benefits and would rather pass away quietly than become a burden.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes at Plan 75, immigrant workers including Maria (Stefanie Arianne) prepare the bodies of the deceased for cremation.

THE EIGHT MOUNTAINS (12A, 147

mins) Best friends reconnect in the heart of the Italian countryside in a tender meditation on fraternal bonds written and directed by Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeersch from the book The Eight Mountains by Paolo Cognetti.

Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) lives in a forgotten mountain village, hopelessly devoted to his surroundings and a peaceful way of life.

Best friend Pietro (Luca Marinelli) lives in the city and sporadically visits the picturesque idyll but invariably returns to the bustling metropolis.

As they reflect on their childhoods, Bruno remembers himself as a boy connecting with a younger Pietro, both blissfully unaware of their diverging destinies.