Although the concept of The Platform is simple it doesn't fail to leave an impact. I had been meaning to watch The Platform for a very long time as the Netflix synopsis didn't make it sound very interesting, but I finally sat down and watched it and all I can say is I wish I had watched this months ago.
The basic premise of the film is that there is a prison/ rehabilitation centre where everyone is put on a level with one other prisoner, there is a platform full of wonderfully cooked food that slowly travels down through every level, the idea being that everyone will only take what they need and leave food for the people on the levels below them but obviously that is not the case and the people on the top levels eat as much as they can stomach and the people on the lower levels are left with scraps or nothing at all leaving them to starve. Every month everyone is moved to a different level so one month they could be at level 3 and the next level 138. The film is not subtle with its political statement on capitalism but there are lots of other stories and meanings going on in the film it is not solely a political statement.
The people on the higher levels are seen as the villains but as soon as the people on the lower levels move to a higher one they act just like the people before them and eat as much as they can leaving the others to starve. Trimagasi sums up the capitalist statement of the film perfectly after he ties up Goreng to eat him and Goreng says "You will be solely responsible for my death you bastard" and Trimagasi replies with "No the people above made me do it".
Everyone is allowed to bring one item into 'The Hole' with them, Goreng brings a book and Trimagasi brings a knife which clearly shows that they expected a very different experience. The film is violent and gory as people fight to survive and will do anything to eat. There's only a handful of characters throughout the film but the story is still very interesting, one character is a mother who sits on the platform as it goes down to try to find her child who is supposedly somewhere in the prison but later in the film Goreng meets a woman who was working for the prison and said that no children were in there and she explains the purpose of the prison and attempts to rally everyone together to all work together and leave enough food for the people on the levels below but is unsuccessful. Near the end of the film Goreng decides to take matters into his own hands and travels down on the platform with his cellmate and fights the people on the higher levels so they don't eat and ration the food for the people on the lower levels.
There's lots of religious symbolism in The Platform the clearest sign is that Goreng plays God when he goes through all the levels and decides who eats and who doesn't and the final floor in the prison is level 333 which is half of the devils number.
The film ends with an uplifting yet unfulfilling manner as Goreng and his cellmate make it to the final level and save the child that the mother had been looking for earlier in the film but Goreng is left in an empty room and the film ends without us knowing what happened to the girl or what happened after Goreng was left, but I guess that is part of the film as the entire film is shown through Goreng's eyes and his story ends when he is left on the last level but I want to know so badly what happened.
Overall the film was very well done and the perfect watch for when you want a psychological thriller that doesn't need much thought to keep up with. The only thing I can fault in the film is that the ending is a bit unfulfilling but the fact that I want the story to keep going just shows how good the film is.