The following review was originally published as part of the June-July 2022 issue of uManyano lwaBasebenzi.
Note: our reviews may contain spoilers!
The Platform is a horror film that depicts the class society we are living in today in a very interesting way. The movie starts off with two characters Goreng and Trimagasi who seem to be in a jail. Goreng has been in the jail for some time while Trimagasi is new. What is interesting about this jail is that it is a vertical jail with many levels and a hole in the middle where a platform of food comes down.
At each level, two cell mates must eat what they can while the platform is at their level. The two cell mates find themselves at level 33, which is a relatively good level because they still get some food. Trimagasi learns how the system works and that there are over 200 levels, and that the food won’t make it to the bottom. He tries to tell those above and below him to ration their food, but those above won’t listen because they are above and those below can’t help because they are below.
Ultimately, the two cell mates end up at a very low level and end up having to resort to cannibalism as no food ever reaches their level. This is a perfect example of how poor people end up resorting to violence and crime to survive because of the greed of rich people in a capitalist society. Conditions of life in “The Hole”, including the constant threat of starvation, take a psychological toll on the inmates. In a similar way, many people suffer from mental illnesses, depression, and anxiety because there are no guarantees of employment or other safety nets in society.
Rage, frustration and hunger consume the inmates and they become unwilling to fight for the common good. Rather, each inmate only focuses on their immediate needs because they know that help is not coming. The movie ends with Trimagasi trying to force people to eat only what they need so that the people at the bottom can eat. That can be equated to how ‘freedom fighters’ end up using violence to push their cause.
As socialists, we understand that without working class people organising together, there can be no victory. Goreng puts up a determined fight to deliver the “message” safely, and there is a lesson we can take from this: that revolutionary forces must be willing to make immense sacrifices in defence of the revolutionary ideas, program and the revolution itself. As Marxists we must fight for the end of the capitalist system, which forces working class people to fight to the death against one another for scraps while the elites flourish.
