The Platform (El Hoyo) (2019): A Dissection of Power and Humanity
Film Details:
- Original Title: El Hoyo (The Platform)
- Year of Production: 2019
- Director: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
- Screenplay: David Desola and Pedro Rivero
- Country of Production: Spain
- Duration: 94 minutes
- Genre: Drama, horror, dystopian
- Main Cast: Iván Massagué (Goreng), Zorion Eguileor (Trimagasi), Antonia San Juan (Imoguiri), Emilio Buale (Baharat), Alexandra Masangkay (Miharu)
- International Distribution: Netflix
Introduction to the Critical Analysis
Hunger is not a mistake: it is the system. Here, it is decided who lives and who dies. There is a breath inside the Pit that never subsides, a vertical breath that sucks away flesh and dignity, in a cycle of violence and hunger that repeats itself with no possibility of redemption, devouring every hope it once nurtured. Verticality, in this context, becomes the very sign of power: an architecture that imposes hierarchy and domination as a sacred rule. Michel Foucault, in “Discipline and Punish”, observes how architecture and the distribution of space are never neutral tools.
Characters and the Political Body
Moreover, the figure of Baharat represents the tension between idealism and the brutality of the system. His body and voice clash with a hierarchy that marginalizes him and reduces him to a sacrificial body, excluded from the right to speak and hope. Judith Butler, in “Bodies That Matter”, reminds us that the body is always a terrain of political negotiation. Here, in the Pit, Baharat’s black body becomes the emblem of a double sacrifice: a victim of both hunger and discrimination, a symbol of a body that bears the burden of power’s cruelty twice over. Nor should we forget the centrality of the female body in the dynamics of sacrifice and domination. Miharu, mother and executioner, embodies a betrayed and instrumentalized maternity, bent to the logic of the offering. Her caresses and moans are never mere acts of survival or love. They are ritual gestures responding to a structural order, that of sacrifice and hunger. In this sense, the scene in which Goreng devours Trimagasi and then Imoguiri reveals the most obscene truth of all.
Cannibalism, Ritual, and Sovereignty
But it is important to clarify: the cannibalism in the Pit is not a ritual or communal act. It is an individual choice and an ethical descent into the gray zone of the human. Goreng does not eat to participate in a collective rite – he eats because hunger and verticality force him to choose. Every bite is not a spiritual gesture, but an act of survival and a simultaneous assimilation of guilt. In the Pit, devouring another body is to accept one’s own complicity in the system – a system that compels one to devour to survive. The ritual repetition manifests itself as the very heart of the Pit, a sacred act that transforms every gesture of rebellion into a new instrument of control. Achille Mbembe, in “Necropolitics”, states that sovereignty is defined by the power to decide who must live and who must die. In the Pit, this sovereignty materializes in the verticality that determines the fate of bodies, a sacrifice renewed with each meal and each moan.
The Child’s Presence and Biopolitics
From this perspective, the presence of the child—often interpreted as a beacon of hope—warrants careful consideration. The Pit offers her protection and sustenance, rendering her a silent witness to a power that perpetually regenerates itself through cycles of repetition and violence. Foucault, in “The Will to Knowledge,” elucidates that biopolitics does not merely eliminate; rather, it actively creates, protects, and reproduces life as a tool of domination. The child serves as undeniable proof that The Pit does not solely consume; it also perpetuates its existence by generating new life within an unending cycle of death.
Comparison with Snowpiercer and the Essentialist Approach
A comparison with Bong Joon-ho’s
Snowpiercer (2013) further illuminates the thematic depth of vertical stratification and social conflict. While
The Platform concentrates on a brutal, almost mythical repetition of violence, Snowpiercer delves into these issues with a greater degree of nuance and complexity. In
Snowpiercer, the hierarchical layering of the train’s compartments serves as a powerful metaphor for social mobility and the potential for rebellion, offering a more multifaceted and dynamic portrayal of contemporary class struggles. This comparative analysis underscores how
The Platform adopts a more essentialist and ritualistic approach to themes of hunger and hierarchy, whereas Snowpiercer provides an in-depth investigation of their ideological and revolutionary dimensions.
Visual Style and Psychological Trap
The visual style of
The Platform undeniably plays a decisive role in maintaining the film’s pervasive tension and oppressive atmosphere. The stark contrast between the luminous, almost sterile environments of the zero level and the progressively more claustrophobic and crepuscular atmospheres of the lower levels creates a compelling visual metaphor for the gradual descent into violence and despair. The tight framing and the recurrent use of crimson color intervals establish a hypnotic and suffocating rhythm, underscoring how the vertical structure of The Pit functions not merely as a social construct but as a profound psychological trap. In this respect, the cinematography serves to unify a film that, at times, might otherwise glide over its more substantial thematic content.
Conclusion
Consequently, there is no salvation or genuine possibility of rebirth, for The Pit is not a realm of redemption, but rather a sacrificial altar that relentlessly imposes its inexorable law upon every body and every desire. Hunger, maternity, and violence are not aberrations; they are, in fact, the very languages of a power that feeds on flesh and blood to perpetuate itself without end. Within this bleak horizon, verticality emerges as the purest and most terrifying symbol of an order that offers no reprieve and permits no escape.
Your Turn to Dissect
Having deconstructed The Platform‘s brutal allegories, what are your own conclusions regarding its portrayal of systemic violence and human choice? Engage in the critical conversation below.