In a dystopian structure, out of time and place as it is timeless and ubiquitous the humans' ferocity against each other, a tower with hundreds of levels houses a vertical prison, where people are sentenced to serve their time or end up for a free choice, as happened to the protagonist Goreng or to the former administrative clerk Imoguiri.
This Vertical Self-Management Centre has a cell with two inmates on each level, the top floor being level 1, and a platform is lowered from top to bottom every day with food for all, a food of exquisite quality and appearance that would be enough for everybody, but only if everybody would take only what they really need for survival.
The prisoners have only few minutes to eat all they want, or rather what has been left over by the higher levels. Each month, without any apparent logic, the inmates are moved to another floor, with all that it means for food availability.
Once the non-rules are accepted, there is no difference between the convict and those who have chosen to enter; all attempts to introduce some sort of humanity and a very basic social cooperation scheme, which would solve the food distribution problem to the benefit of all, fail and not even the ultimate effort to enforce it through force is able to effectively change the relationships and the fate of the inmates.
Emblematically, the movie ends on the floor level, level 333, that in numerology represents the spiritual guide that helps those in distress, even though the final message, embodied in a girl apparently born in captivity, does not look so hopeful.
The Platform premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was bought by Netflix, where it has become soon one of the top-watched movies in 2020. And rightly so!
Based upon a theatre screenplay but heavily re-written, the movie is the first direction of Basque director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and it is not easy to watch, but for those who will have the stomach to endure the savagely violent and disturbing footage there will be a terrible yet sophisticated and intellectually rewarding parable on the imperfection of the human beings and on their animal instincts, shot with a remarkable visual style and plenty of clever references, to movies, above all Peter Greenaway's for the food elaborate preparation, to literature, with Dante's Comedy and his trip to Hell, as well as socio-political doctrines, with open criticisms of both liberal and socialist systems.
Good and effective also the actors' performances, that the director has cannily chosen in some case from actors usually cast on comic, lighter roles.
Bearing in mind that some scenes might be disturbing for some viewers, the movie is highly recommended for its artistic value and style and represents a bold choice, therefore to be praised and recognised, for Netflix, which is usually very popular but not necessarily associated with art movies like this one.
Once the non-rules are accepted, there is no difference between the convict and those who have chosen to enter; all attempts to introduce some sort of humanity and a very basic social cooperation scheme, which would solve the food distribution problem to the benefit of all, fail and not even the ultimate effort to enforce it through force is able to effectively change the relationships and the fate of the inmates.
Emblematically, the movie ends on the floor level, level 333, that in numerology represents the spiritual guide that helps those in distress, even though the final message, embodied in a girl apparently born in captivity, does not look so hopeful.
The Platform premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was bought by Netflix, where it has become soon one of the top-watched movies in 2020. And rightly so!
Based upon a theatre screenplay but heavily re-written, the movie is the first direction of Basque director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and it is not easy to watch, but for those who will have the stomach to endure the savagely violent and disturbing footage there will be a terrible yet sophisticated and intellectually rewarding parable on the imperfection of the human beings and on their animal instincts, shot with a remarkable visual style and plenty of clever references, to movies, above all Peter Greenaway's for the food elaborate preparation, to literature, with Dante's Comedy and his trip to Hell, as well as socio-political doctrines, with open criticisms of both liberal and socialist systems.
Good and effective also the actors' performances, that the director has cannily chosen in some case from actors usually cast on comic, lighter roles.
Bearing in mind that some scenes might be disturbing for some viewers, the movie is highly recommended for its artistic value and style and represents a bold choice, therefore to be praised and recognised, for Netflix, which is usually very popular but not necessarily associated with art movies like this one.