The Platform (2020)

Summary:

The Platform is set in a future society where prisoners are kept in “The Hole” where each floor is a small cement holding room. In the rooms there is a large space cut out of the floor, which allows a rectangular platform containing daily food provisions to pass from the highest floor to the lowest floor. The prisoners on the upper floors are allowed to eat from the platform first, and pass down the leftovers to the floors underneath them. The prisoners who are on a higher floor splurge on the food provided, because they have access to it first. The ones on the lower floors are left with scraps, and some even have to resort to cannibalism due to the lack of food. After the 50th floor most of the food is gone, and there are more than 300 floors.

Each pair of prisoners are assigned to their respected floor by the authorities, and are reassigned a new floor every month. Which is interesting, because one month a prisoner may be on floor 2 and another month he may be on floor 202. 

Throughout the film we follow Goreng, who decided to come into the prison voluntarily for six months in exchange for earning a diploma. Some other prisoners are in The Hole for commiting murder. Each prisoner upon entering The Hole is granted one item. Goreng decided to bring a book whereas some characters brought swords, guns, or other weapons. There is no limitation as to what the prisoner may, bring and in The Hole there are no rules anything goes.

Review (Containing Spoilers):

Suicide, cannibalism, and political commentary. It’s super thought provoking, and honestly worth a watch. In my opinion, it’s one of Netflix’s gems. This film did a great job on making social commentary about classism and human greed while keeping the film interesting. People are comparing the film to “Cube” and “Snowpiercer” I have not seen either, but if that’s something you’re into go watch The Platform. There’s a lot that is not outright explained in the film, and is left to the viewer’s interpretation, so it’s great to discuss. After watching it, I was definitely left with a lot of questions. 

One thing I’m curious about the most is the child. Imoguiri, the authoritarian woman Goreng encountered, explained that the authorities were very strict with having nobody allowed in under the age of 16. Miharu, an Asian mother, would descend on The Platform month to month to look for her child. Imoguiri brought her dog in as her one item, so one of the theories I came up with was that maybe Miharu brought the child in as her one item. Another theory I had (which is a stretch) was that the mother could’ve gotten pregnant during her time in The Hole, because she’s been attacked several times and I’m not sure how long she’s been there. The last thing I thought was maybe they knew about the child as she came in, but left her in there as a test to see if anyone would help her and keep her alive… or they knew about her and didn’t tell everyone or kept it under the rug. Imoguiri was ignorant to what was actually going on in The Hole even though she’s worked there for 25+ years, so the authorities could be keeping some other secrets from the rest of the employees. Either way, how did the child get in the prison? Also, if every pair of prisoners went to each floor together, how did the child get separated from her mother? 

One of my favorite characters was the old man Trimagasi. First of all I think they casted this role so well. Zorion Eguileor played such a great weird, likable, but terrifying character. His whole backstory was a trip. “I bought a knife… then a sharper knife… then threw my TV out the window and accidentally killed an immigrant.” Wild. Trimagasi was very greedy, and also showed that even though he made it to a higher level those above him still didn’t accept him or treat him well. He also showed how the ones in higher class systems or higher positions will piss on those below them. In his case literally. 

How Trimagasi spoke and dealt with Goreng was very disturbing too. Obviously. When he called him “his snail” and spoke to him about how he was going to go about eating him, but preserving him throughout the month was completely terrifying. Especially when he told Goreng that he’ll give him pieces of his own flesh to eat as a kind gesture. When there were times of hardship like how they got knocked down to the lowest level Trimagasi has been on he immediately resorts to tying up Goreng and attempting to eat him.The scene where Trimagasi cut a chunk out of Goreng’s leg was very cringe inducing. But Goreng has the “main character invincibility,” so he’d be fine for the moment.

Goreng only brought a book to The Hole. I’m not sure how The Hole was described to the outsiders, because I believe if anyone knew how it was like they’d certainly bring something more practical. In the scenes where Imoguiri was interviewing him from what it looked like The Hole seemed rather decent. Everyone can bring one item of their choice and their favorite food will be on the menu. The book that Goreng brought was Don Quixote, and the journey Don Quixote goes through is very similar to Goreng’s. I thought it was interesting, because Goreng even looks similar to Don Quixote. The book explains how aristocrats or higher ups are seen as selfish and greedy, and the ones below them suffer. But, Quixote tries to beat the system by looking outside the box. Goreng’s character is someone who tries to spread the message of if we only take what we need we can all survive. The opening quote of the film is, “there are three types of person: those at the top, those at the bottom, and those who fall.” Goreng’s character falls by descending down purposely to spread the message. The message has to be spread starting from the top, so that those above will start to make a change.

Another character I enjoyed was Baharat. I really felt for him when he got shat on, but that was also a great moment of social commentary. Baharat’s item of choice was a rope, and he dreamed up climbing to the higher floors. He would ask those above him to help him up, but they mentioned him being black and also on a lower level than them, so they literally shit on him as he tried to climb. He dropped his rope which symbolized him dropping his dreams of climbing higher. I found it interesting how righteous he was preaching about God as he tried to ascend to the higher floors, but he had no problems viciously bashing people in the head trying to protect a panna cotta. Thankfully Goreng had Baharat, because he definitely wouldn’t be able to fight off hungry prisoners with his scrawny self. It was upsetting to see how many people killed themselves being on the lower levels, but I probably would’ve done the same compared to turning towards cannibalism.

The ending of the film left a lot of viewers with questions. Originally one of mine was, why not the panna cotta? I honestly thought that the panna cotta was a great message showing the authorities that the prisoners were able to fast in order to feed those below them. But, they sent the child up to the authorities via platform instead, and realized that the child was the true message. 

The child is actually the message, because she represents that if we teach children they can break away from and change a corrupt society. Children are the future. Most of the film I believe she was referred to as a boy, and this also symbolizes how some things get twisted when we don’t fully know the whole story. The other prisoners were also going back and forth about Miharu, but it was all according to rumors or bits of what they’ve seen like in Imoguiri’s case. The message is that children are the future and can be the change in society. Showing the child to the authorities would then break the system. Especially since there’s a rule that nobody under 16 is allowed in the prison, but this child being on the very last floor was overlooked and got swept up in the middle of all this. Kind of like how children in lower class systems are overlooked, because of the terrible society.

The ending is left to the viewer’s interpretation. This was what I got out of it, someone else could interpret it another way.

In general the film is commentary on social classes and human greed. There couldn’t be a better time for a Netflix release, than the corona pandemic.

*cough* stop hoarding toilet paper *cough*