“The Platform” is a 2019 Spanish horror thriller film directed by Galder Gaztel-Urrutia. The film depicts a terrifying and grim tale of social hierarchy that won three awards for Best Special Effects.
The film was released in Spain by Festival Films on 8 November 2019 and on “Netflix” on 20 March 2020. “Netflix” revealed that 56 million households watched the film in its first four weeks of release.
Director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia says the film’s main message is that “humanity will have to move towards a fair distribution of wealth”. The film is based on a theatre script by David Desola and Pedro Rivero, to which more action and physical elements have been added in order to make it more suitable for film.
The action takes place in a vertical prison, with a cell on each floor that can hold two people. In the middle of the floor there is a large hole through which a giant food platform descends once a day through all the floors, starting from the ground floor, and the inhabitants of each floor have two minutes to enjoy the goodies. People on the lower floors can only eat what is left by those on the higher floors. While the prisoners above selfishly eat what they want, the prisoners below starve.
The main character of the film, Goreng, has come here of his own accord to spend six months in this place, but soon discovers that the rules are more complex than he thought. Every month, the prisoners change floors, are sedated and moved to a new cell. Prisoners and volunteers can only have food when the platform is at their floor level. They cannot save their treats for later, and if they don’t comply with the rule, they will fry from the heat or freeze to death in their cell. There are far more floors than Goreng thought.
People living higher up enjoy luxury and food in abundance, while those on the lower floors face hunger and desperation. The film highlights this problem by showing how inequality affects people’s behaviour and quality of life. “The Platform raises the themes of hunger, violence, inequality and even cannibalism, and it is these scenes that remind us that this is a horror film. And the issues of inequality, solidarity and the impact of the system that are analysed give hope to humanity.
This science fiction film depicts a brutal social experiment that addresses the pressing and painful issues facing society today. “Platform is an intense, suspenseful film that explores questions of human morality and nature. The horror thriller also examines the impact of the system created on the behaviour of individuals and raises questions about social justice, thus forcing the viewer to analyse and reflect.
