The Moon

DOJIMA Yoko (MIYAZAWA Rie) was once a popular novelist, known for a novel about the victims of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, but has since lost her drive to write. Seeking a change, she begins working at an institution for the disabled hidden within a forest. Not long after meeting the facility’s socially-ostracised residents, Yoko is horrified to witness staff abusing them, but is held together by empathetic young carer SATO (ISOMURA Hayato).

Soon enough, Yoko discovers that, in spite of her age, she is pregnant. Fearing that the unborn child may be disabled, and having already lost one son, she considers prenatal testing. Meanwhile, SATO begins to exhibit eccentric thoughts on the residents and the value of their lives, which Yoko finds very disturbing…

Directed by ISHII Yuya (The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue, JFTFP23), one of the most skilled directors of his generation, The Moon is a chilling adaptation of the novel of the same name, itself based upon a 2016 incident in Japan that saw 19 mentally disabled people murdered in the name of “mercy” by a care home employee. With a furious intensity, ISHII asks scathing questions on the state of the Japanese care system and the meaning of life itself.