Film Review

“The Platform / el hoyo”

SMA NEGERI 81 JAKARTA

Name: Radhin Hanif Fathurrahman
Class: X MIPA 3
Theme : Social Critic

Genre : Science fiction, Thriller

Director : Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia

Cast :

 Ivan Massagué as Goreng

 Zorion Eguileor as Trimagasi
 Antonia San Juan as Imoguiri
 Emilio Buale as Baharat
 Alexandra Masangkay as Miharu
 Zihara Llana as Mali
 Mario Pardo as Amigo de Baharat
 Algis Arlauskas as Preso
 Txubio Fernández de Jáuregui as Jefe de Restaurante (as Txubio Fernández)
 Eric Goode as Sr. Brambang (as Eric L. Goode)
 Óscar Oliver as Cocinero
 Chema Trujillo as Preso Nivel 5
 Miriam Martín as Presa Nivel 5
 Gorka Zufiaurre as Preso Síndrome de Down
 Miriam K. Martxante as Cocinera

Plot : A vertical prison with one cell per level. Two people per cell. One only food platform and
two minutes per day to feed from up to down. An endless nightmare trapped in The Hole.

Summary :

In a dystopian near future with absence of resources, people can freely to go into The Hole, a
vertical underground jail where after an interview to check the possible admission, the
volunteer passes a determined time in exchange to acquire more social status. Hoping to get an
approved title, Goreng wakes up in the level 18 to discover The Hole's structure: only one cell of
6 meters height (so-so 20 feet) per level with a rectangular hole in the middle in all them, used
by The Hole's administration to descend a too rectangular floating platform with the food for all
prisoners, downing from level 0 (the restaurant in the surface where food is cooked) to the
bottom, standing 2 minutes per level. With veteran Trimagasi as cell's partner, Goreng learns
eventually The Hole's main rules: first, each inmate arrives The Hole with a personal object to
chose from the exterior; second, the inmates can't keep food off the platform under penalty to
die by extreme heat or cold; and third, one time per month all inmates are asleep using gas in
order to exchange all them of level. But when a month later they both wake up in the level 171,
Goreng learns for his horror that all the inmates divide in four types: those in the upper levels
who eat with more time to think, those in the mid levels who eat the rests of the food left in
the platform, those in the lower levels whose don't eat after platform arrives empty becoming
in demented and starved killers, and finally those who jump to the void by the hole, crashing
against lower levels to being cannibalized by the savage inmates. Saved to be killed by
Trimagasi in the last minute by Miharu, a silent and violent young girl who time and time again
descends in the platform looking for her missing child forced to be in The Hole, Goreng starts
lose his mind in a place without morality or humanity, passing from level 23 to 252 with
Imoguiri (Goreng's interviewer and an ingenuous about the reality of The Hole) as new
partner.She tell Goreng that acctually the food is enough for everyone if they eat according to
thet need. Instead, those at the higher levels grab all they can, whether they need it or not,
and are perfectly fine leaving scraps for those below. At one point in the movie, Goreng and
Imoguiri (Antonia San Juan), one of his roomates, convince the level below them to only eat
their portion. Convincing the poor and hungry to share is difficult, but not impossible.finally
arrive in level 6 with Baharat as lately partner, who tries with a rope scaling to level 0. But
Goreng tells Baharat a better plan to leave The Hole.

After that, Goreng convinces Baharat that they should just force the rationing by going down on
the platform and using power and fear to break the system. They decide that they will go down
50 floors and start handing out food only from the 51st floor. The ones on top have had full
bellies. Goreng mentions that he counted the time taken for the platform to shoot back up and
calculates about 250 levels (he doesn’t account for the platform not stopping on floors with no
one left alive, so there are way more floors). The remainder of the film is how the descent of
Goreng and Baharat pans outIn the previous months, Baharat has shared a floor with the man
in the wheelchair, he refers to him as a wise-man. There is an uncanny calm to this person. He
points out that the two of them are wasting much of the food by standing on it. Despite the
circumstances, he advises that dialogue must come first, and only if that fails, must they strike.
The wise man explains that the Administration has no conscience, but there is a slim chance
that the people working on level 0 do. He suggests that a message is sent up with a symbol, a
delicious, perfectly presented dish, untouched. If the people working got a meal like that sent
back from the Hole, they would understand the message – that there has been a spontaneous
sense of solidarity. He suggests the luxurious panna cotta should be the message.

In the final scenes of The Platform, we see our protagonist Goreng (Ivan Massague), who
astonishingly came to the platform of cement cells voluntarily, and Baharat (Emilio Buale Coka)
find a child hiding under the bed in Level 333. Goreng and Baharat are out of food long before
getting there, with the exception of the panna cotta, which they believed would be their
message to Level 0. They give the child the dessert and let the platform go back up without
them. They replace the panna cotta with the young girl as the message for the people at level 0.

Message:

The entire movie was a metaphor for capitalism and its message couldn’t have hit us more than
these days during a pandemic. If the prisoners (the people) would agree to work together, take
only their fair share, and not be so greedy, there would be far less suffering.
The young girl is the message to the people at Level 0 (who assume the worst about the
prisoners) that not everyone has lost their humanity. There are still people who will do the right
thing. It means that the young girl represents hope, purity, and morality.