THE PLATFORM
Spain, 2019, 94 minutes, Colour.
Ivan Massague, Zorion Eguileor, Antonia San Juan,
Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia.
Here is a Spanish film that is dazzling to look at, but also ugly and cruel. It is a symbolic film, an allegory about human society and human nature.
There are 200 floors in the Platform of the title. And it is a prison. It is a hierarchical prison. On the top floor are more privileged prisoners, the first floor, and then the numbers descend. The prisoners are two to a room. What is significant during the action of the film is the feeding of the prisoners. They can make orders as to what they would like to eat. However, the elaborate administration and kitchen pack the lift which is to take the food from the top down, those on the upper floors greedily devouring the food so that less and less remains as it descends.
The central character is Goreng who finds himself in prison and it is not clear always to the audience or to Goring himself as to how he got there all why. His passion is to read. He shares the floor and room with Trimagasi, an old man who seems to have absorbed and succumbed to the system, who will disappear but later reappear to Goring.
As Goring moves to different floors, he encounters a number of strange characters, especially a woman who has been in administration but who turns vicious.
In fact, it is expected of the prisoners that they literally devour each other and receive benefits from surviving. More than a dog-eat- dog situation, it is human-devour-human.
While the platform is a symbol of hierarchical human society, authoritarian and control and manipulation, it is also a story of human nature, often seen at its worst and most cruel.
To that extent, The Platform is a film that could be admired but is also an endurance.
Many bloggers have gone to great pains to explore the themes and meaning of the film and a recommendation to look at many of these on the IMDb.
Below are some quotations indicating the lines of interpretation.
The "Verticle Self-Management? Center" is an allegory for society, with those at the top provided the best of everything and a willingness to consume far more than necessary at the expense of those below, while those at the lowest levels of society must suffer and go without. This can apply to society within a country or the worldwide society of first world to third world countries. It also attempts to show this is the case whether there is a capitalist or socialist economy. In either case, those with the majority of the power generally take what they want.
Most building floors are numbered from lowest to highest from bottom to top, but the prison is the exact reverse with level 1 at the top, the same numbering system as the Circles of Hell in Dante's Inferno. Inhabitants of the Third Circle, reserved for gluttons, are punished for their exercise greed and appetite above on Earth, and like the prison inhabitants on the higher floors, hoard what they desire at the expense of others.
