By: Mona Sambo
The platform – review
After ‘Money Heist’, a series that has been very successful worldwide, Spain spared no energy to throw us ‘The platform’, that without exaggeration, was the best movie I’ve watched so far.
The platform is a Spanish science fiction horror-thriller film, directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and released in 2019. In Spain, the film is called ‘El hoyo’ that literally means ‘The hole’.
The film unfolds on something called The platform, that can be described as a large, tower-style “Vertical self-management centre”. Its residents who are mostly prisoners and volunteers – who in fact, receive a certificate for their stay – are, after a certain period, switched at random between its several floors.
They are fed via an elevator that is initially filled with delicious food at floor number 0 that descends through the platform levels, with each level getting only the leftovers from the previous ones.
The type of light, the minimalist effects and the filming techniques used gave intensification to the film, that makes us feel the circumstances and allow us to be aware of things and words that might try to escape us.
And you, just like I did, may think ‘so… is this movie going to take place just there? That’s not funny’. My friend, don’t think it is boring because it is set in single or multiple equal scenarios because what happens there is anything but boring.
I can certainly say that this is a movie loaded with messages and social criticism that was given to us to reflect a little on human nature and resource management.
The prisoners have the same clothes, live in the same conditions, act similarly and just as a society, have created in their minds a pattern that not everyone benefits. You cannot differentiate who came from a high or low class.
A piece of small advice… as you watch, try to unravel all the messages because I assure you that everything has a meaning. Also, try to put yourself in that place under the same circumstances. How would you act?
Gaztelu-Urritia said that the film’s keyword is that “Humanity will have to move towards the fair distribution of wealth”. On the review website Rotten Tomatoes, The platform holds a rating of 83% based on 52 reviews with the average rating of 7.43/10.
It has 94 minutes and became available on Netflix on March 20 this year. Just to be aware, the film won the People’s choice award for Midnight Madness at the ‘2019 Toronto International Film Festival’.
For you who want to be distracted in this quarantine or take a break, this is certainly the movie that will keep you busy and after all, you might enter into a relationship of love and hate with it.
To be more interesting, you can even watch it with someone else and discuss its intriguing ending.
