The Platform is an obvious and violent parable

The Platform is a violent and very obvious parable about the capitalist system. However, the way it is presented is more frightening as we try to convince ourselves of human kindness. And even when we expect the worst, what comes next succeeds in overcoming what has already been seen, in rawness and despair.

The minimalist set design resembles a theater stage. Most of the scenes take place in a structure called The Hole, where cells for two people have a large central opening through which a platform with a table with food for the whole day descends daily.

At level zero, there is a kitchen where a banquet is prepared daily with refined foods, delicacies, desserts, and drinks. This feast goes down intact to level 1 and then successively, in brief stops, to the lower levels. If each pair consumes a small portion of what is served, it is possible that there may be food for everyone. Of course, that never happens.

Selfish, not only do the occupants of the upper cells eagerly devour more than they can handle digesting, but they smear the remains of food they cannot eat. Some justify their actions by remembering that, after a month, a shuffle occurs, and they can be transferred to cells below.

The movie starts with Goreng (Ivan Massagué) waking up at level 48 alongside the old Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor). He brings the only object to which everyone is entitled: a Don Quixote book by Miguel de Cervantes. His cellmate has a knife that sharpens itself.

Goreng's odyssey literally has many ups and downs until he meets Baharat (Emilio Buale), a black man who carries a rope with which he intends to reach level zero, without realizing that, doing so, he will need the help of people from above.

Together, they intend to send a message to the Administration that, as said by a sage, “has no conscience” of what happens at the lower levels. Little by little, the two paladins will discover that practicing good, altruism and social justice is a far more inglorious and challenging task than they imagined.

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