The Platform
Short description
The Platform is a Spanish science fiction thriller set inside a tall, windowless structure where a stone slab carrying food descends past every level once a day. Each floor holds two people, and those near the top can eat their fill while everyone below receives only what is left behind. The arrangement turns hunger into a daily contest, and the film follows one resident as he learns how the system works and what it does to the people inside it.
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia directed the film, his first feature, from a screenplay by Pedro Rivero and David Desola, with Carlos Juárez producing. Iván Massagué plays Goreng, and the cast includes Antonia San Juan, Zorion Eguileor, Emilio Buale, Alexandra Masangkay and Zihara Llana, among 21 credited performers.
Made for about 1 million USD and released in November 2019, the film grossed a similar amount worldwide, though its reach extended far beyond cinemas through streaming. It holds a 7/10 rating on IMDb from roughly 322,000 votes and a 7/10 on TMDB from about 8,000 votes. A critics' rating of 7.3/10 from 99 reviews places it close to the audience scores. Gaztelu-Urrutia went on to direct The Platform 2 and Rich Flu.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was shot in chronological order because Ivan Massague, the performer of the main role, needed to lose 12 kg over a six-week period in order to demonstrate the deterioration of his overall condition and the exhaustion of the body.
- In most buildings, floor numbers go from bottom to top, but here the first level of the prison is located at the very top. This is numbering, like the circles of hell in Dante Alighieri's work. The inhabitants of the third circle in Dante, where gluttons are held, are punished for greed; in this prison, the inhabitants of the upper levels feast at the expense of the others.
- The floors are numbered from top to bottom, like the circles of hell in Dante Alighieri's Inferno. The inhabitants of the upper levels feast at the expense of the others.
- The film mentions 333 levels. In numerology, this number symbolizes answered prayers or a hint from a guardian angel.
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