One of my most favorite films of last year – The Platform, a Spanish film released in 2019, directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and available on Netflix. It is extremely abstract, futuristic, philosophical, disturbing, and of course, restores faith in Humanity. Below is a paraphrase from the film, not a review. If you have not watched the movie yet, refrain from further reading to avoid spoilers.
A man called Goreng voluntarily enrolls himself in a multistorey underground prison for six months to get over his smoking habit. After going through multiple levels of screening an officer lady imouguri accepts his admission after collecting a detailed report on his likes and dislikes. Every inmate of this prison is entitled to bring one object of his or her liking and Goreng chooses a book. Once he gets admitted, he wakes up in level 48 of the prison.
He meets an old man of 70s who is cold and bitter by behavior. He carries a kitchen knife as the accompanying object and the old man was charged for murdering an illegal immigrant due to his abnormal psychotic behavior. He slowly gets himself acquainted with Goreng and they be warm with each other. The old man listens to Goreng read from his book every day. After Goreng had his share of food he tries to convince the people in the lower levels to ration the food for people underneath as he learns from the old man that there will be at least 200 levels as the old man has even spent his days on level 150 or so.
The rules of the cell go like, every level gets a wide spread of food that passes from level to level once every day over a platform. The platform will wait at each level for a few minutes such that the inmates of the level get to eat as much as they want and pass the leftovers to the next level below. If the inmate of a level holds the food for later after the platform goes down from his level, the temperature of the level will raise extremely or lowers extremely such that the prisoners will die unless they throw off the stored food. Every level has two inmates each and a rectangular hole to hold the platform that transports food from level to level. Every inmate spends a level for 30 days and will be moved randomly to the next level either up or down by the end of every month. The cells are unsupervised unless for the above said rules, so even if one kills another or contaminate the food before it reaches the lower level no questions asked.
One day along with the platform, an Asian woman comes down. She looks crazy, with stains of blood running down the corner of her lips. Goreng, our hero gets empathetic and shows some warmth through his signs. As the platform passes down the woman comes looking for a child every day along with the platform.
Sometimes this woman is taken advantage of and some other times she kills the level-mates in the fight, yet her quest continued. Goreng learns her story from the old man. This time the people in the level below Goreng’s tried misbehaving with this woman and yet she won the bloodbath. She notices Goreng’s loud shout when these two men pulled her with her legs from the platform. She finishes off the two men and boards the platform for passing through the next level.
By the end of the first month, the old man talks crazy saying he is unsure which level they might wake up the next day and if it somewhere over 100 they may not even be left with bones and so he cannot vouch for his behavior to him as his priority is to save his own life. The next morning these two wake up in level 172, only that Goreng was tied to his bed by the old man. He says Goreng, he is going to eat pieces of Goreng’s flesh starting day 8 while he mends his wound and gives a share of his own flesh to eat for his survival. That way both get to keep his life otherwise, he says he will anyway eat his flesh as long as it takes. There came the 8th day, the old man is cutting a piece of Goreng’s flesh from his thighs while the platform moves with the Asian woman. The woman who has a soft corner for Goreng slit the old man’s throat with a knife and unties Goreng. While the wounded Goreng is in range, he takes the knife from the woman and kills the old man by assaulting his blindly. He started feeding on the cadaver of the old man until he finds himself at a higher level 16 or something with the lady who admitted him to the cell.
Goreng started seeing the visions of this old man whom he fed on. The woman has brought a dog with her to the hole. She is just and wanted food for everyone under. She and her dog ration their portion of food on alternative days. She tries to reason with the inmates below their level to take the portion that she has arranged for them in plates and ask them to do the same for their lower level. The men turn deaf ears to her. Goreng to make them listen threatened them that he will piss all over their food unless they do not say as she advises. They now listened.
A month passed without much fuzz.
The next month, they wake up at a much lower level and realize there still are many levels underneath. Goreng knows only one of these two can survive. One day the Asian woman came down with severe wounds. Goreng and his inmate cleaned and dressed her wounds while the dog feasted on the leftovers on the platform. As the platform moved down, the temperature of the level started dropping sub-zero as they realize the dog still holds a piece of meat in its mouth. Goreng grabbed the food and thrown away to the lower level. Now the two ladies took the mattresses while the shivering Goreng rests leaning on the wall. The Asian woman notices this seeing the other lady sleeps next to her dog. She kills the dog leaving these two women in feuds and fistfights. Goreng pacifies the two women and the Asian goes to the lower level with the platform. The woman tells Goreng that the Asian woman voluntarily admitted herself and did not have a kid of family when she came here and the woman says the children below age 16 are strictly not admitted to the hole. She stopped eating altogether and Goreng eats the pages from his book only to find this lady dies of hunger strike.
He survives to find himself in level 6 in the next month with a good African man carrying a rope. He tries to reason with the people above his level and send a message to people above so that they be thoughtful about the people under them. But he remains helpless. He and Goreng collectively plan to reason with the people in the lower levels instead and decides to ration the food for them. If they don’t listen they plan to assault them and get away with food to people at the lower levels. As people until level 50 ate the previous day, they get no food today. They arm themselves with the rods from their cots and go along the platform to ration the food. They played by their rules until they met the black man’s guru who says, passing food to the lower levels is one thing but the real revelation should come to people in level zero. So make sure you send the most delicious dish untouched even after reaching the bottom-most level. That way they will learn their ways. While they share the food amongst the people at various levels they kept the pannacotta as a message to level zero. As they moved down, the black man was severely injured and assaulted by the level mates. Goreng saved him from them by killing them.on their way, they see the Asian woman and several others killed.
Based on the time that the platform takes, they calculated there will be about 300 levels but then they realize many were dead in the lower levels leaving the platform unstopped. When the platform reaches level 303, it stopped after continuously moving platform to platform unstopped and they thought they reached the base and there is none in the level. Only then they realize there is a girl child of 9-19 years lying under the cot. They give the pannacotta to the girl as she looks very hungry. They decide to send her back as the message to level 0 and administration.
The black man loses a lot of blood and he never woke up. So the girl along with severely wounded and weak Goreng gets to the base level. The old man’s vision advises Goreng that she does not need safekeeping anymore and the girl is special hence she will deliver the message. The weak Goreng lets go of the child in the basement while the platform takes off towards level 0. This symbolizes Goreng has already lost his life through his fight at some point after the black man lost his life.
References:
Note: There may be differences in the level numbers I have mentioned, corrections are welcome.
Sharmili unplugged....... 