The shaft

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Movie
German title The shaft
Original title El Hoyo
Country of production Spain
original language Spanish
Publishing year 2019
length 94 minutes
Rod
Director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia
script David Desola , Pedro Rivero
production Ángeles Hernández ,
Carlos Juarez,
David Matamoros
music Aránzazu Calleja
camera Jon D. Domínguez
cut Elena Ruiz ,
Haritz Zubillaga
occupation
synchronization

The shaft (AKA El Hoyo , international English-language title The Platform ) is a science fiction - Thriller by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia , who in September 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival for the first time shown and described in the program of the March 20, 2020 Netflix has been added . It is set in a vertical prison where the prisoners' food is transported on a descending platform, so that the lower-lying prisoners only get what the higher-lying prisoners leave behind.

content

The shaft

In a dystopian future, the film is set exclusively in a prison with the eponymous name “The Shaft”, called “Vertical Center for Self-Administration” by the administration. It is a tower in which the cells, which are each inhabited by two inmates, are one above the other. The number of cells that is named increases as the film progresses; there are a total of 333, numbered top to bottom, with a level 0 and a final dark basement. The inmates are given a new name upon admission and are allowed to take an item inside. Each cell is constructed identically and has a minimalist interior: there is a bed on two opposite walls, a toilet and a wash basin on another wall, a red and a green light opposite, and a rectangular hole in the middle of the floor.

On the top level 0, the cooks cover a plate with exquisite food, which then descends through the holes and thus supplies the prisoners with food. When the platform arrives at a level, the red light goes out and the green light goes on. Inmates on each level have two minutes to eat before the platform descends to the next and are not allowed to keep anything but supplies, because then the cell becomes unbearably warm or cold until they discard what was kept through the hole. According to the administration, there is theoretically enough food for everyone if everyone only took what they need. This is called "spontaneous solidarity". In fact, the higher levels fill their bellies while the lower levels only get what's left. The middle levels are left with nibbled leftovers, much deeper levels only bones and empty serving plates. However, after a month, an anesthetic gas is introduced into the cells, which anesthetizes the inmates, who are then distributed to another cell with the same or different partners, so that each can end up further up or down.

action

“There are three kinds of people: those from above; those from below; those who fall. "

- Trimagasi : first words in the film

Goreng (Indonesian for fried , see Nasi Goreng or Bami Goreng ), who had himself brought in for six months in order to then receive a recognized qualification, and who took a copy of Don Quixote as an object , wakes up for the first time on level 48 on. His cell partner is Trimagasi, who, according to his own story, killed someone by throwing his television out of the window after seeing advertisements for a knife sharpener and for a knife that does not become blunt but gets sharper with use. That knife is the item that he put in it.

Goreng can only bring one object and chooses a copy of Miguel de Cervantes ' masterpiece Don Quixote

Trimagasi (Indonesian terima kasih thank you), who has already spent many months in the shaft, explains to Goreng how the shaft works and keeps saying that these things are “perfectly clear”. Goreng should not address those of them because they are among them, and those above them not because they are above them. When the platform with food comes for the first time, Trimagasi immediately eats like an animal with his fingers and is happy that this time there is wine. Goreng isn't hungry, but pocketed an apple. He's disgusted at having to eat what so many have eaten before him, but Trimagasi says there will be fewer upstairs soon. After the platform has moved on, Trimagasi spits down. Since it is suddenly getting hotter, Goreng has to throw the apple down too. During the night, a person falls down the shaft above. On the second day, Goreng didn't eat anything again. Trimagasi says that the deepest level he was in is 132 and that no more food arrives there. When Goreng wants to talk to those above them so that the food can be divided up, Trimagasi accuses him of being a communist; when Goreng wants to talk to those among them again, but who demand more wine, Trimagasi pees down on them, because they are among them. On the third day, Goreng eats for the first time. On the fourth day he accused Trimagasi of killing his cell partner on the 132. When the platform comes, a woman named Miharu is sitting on it looking for her child. At level 49, the inmates pull her off the platform; but she kills them and sits down on the platform again. From then on, Goreng Trimagasi reads from Don Quixote and eats a lot.

After the turn of the month you will be on level 171. Goreng wakes up in his bed tied up. The screams of those who, when they wake up, realize that they have reached a very deep level, can be heard and some fall down the shaft. Trimagasi wants to let Goreng fast like Escargots for a week and from the eighth day cut off meat from him, which he also wants to give him to eat himself. The first time he cuts a piece, Miharu comes down with the platform. She attacks Trimagasi and stabs him in the neck. Then she frees Goreng, who then stabs Trimagasi as if from his senses, and ultimately kills him.

At first very reluctantly, Goreng feeds himself on small pieces of meat from Trimagasi's lifeless body, which Miharu gives him and which he sometimes chews in advance. Trimagasi appears in his dreams from now on, since he has now also physically become part of Goreng through the consumption of his meat.

The next time Goreng is on Level 33 with a woman named Imogiri, whom he recognizes as the one from the administration who carried out his admission procedure. Like him, she is in the shaft voluntarily and has taken her dog Ramses II with her, with whom she takes turns sharing her ration of the day. When the platform comes, it prepares two sufficient servings for the people on level 34 and asks them to only eat what is necessary and again to prepare servings for the next level. She tries to do this for a fortnight, during which they ignore her, whereupon Goreng threatens them to poop on the food every day. He says those above them won't listen "because [he] can't poop up." The next time, Miharu is injured on the platform and Goreng puts her in his bed. Imogiri says there are no children in the shaft because the administration is very strict. During the night the women argue because Miharu killed the dog for its meat, which is why she has to move on during the day. Imogiri says she picked Miharu ten months ago and she has no child, and swears in the administration she didn't know what she was doing with sending people down the shaft.

Next time, Goreng wakes up on level 202 and sees that Imogiri has hanged himself. He now hears her in his head that she did it so that he could feed on her. When the platform comes, he takes a plate shard with which he scratches lines on the wall for the hours. Only after a long time does he cut off meat from Imogiri.

Next time, Goreng is on Level 6. His cell partner Baharat has taken a rope and is asking people on Level 5 to let him up. When he has almost climbed up, they don't take his hand, they puke in his face, whereupon he falls down, but Goreng prevents him from falling through the hole. During the night they come up with the plan to go down on the platform and distribute food and when there is none left to go back up with the platform. They tear rods from the bed frame to keep people off the platform. On level 7, Goreng decides that they will only distribute food from level 51, because the upper ones get something every day. On one level they meet a man Baharat knows and describes as wise. He tells them that the administration cannot understand their message because they have no conscience, but maybe the workers on level 0. They need a delicious food as a symbol that is sent back upstairs untouched - panna cotta is chosen . When they first come to a level where nobody lives anymore, they notice that the platform drives through without stopping in such a case. When Miharu is attacked by both inmates on one level, they fight the men and kill them, but cannot save Miharu.

After only the panna cotta has been left for a long time, the platform finally stops on level 333, although apparently nobody is there, so Baharat thinks it will be the last and they would then go up again. But Goreng sees a child under a bed and they jump off, whereupon the platform goes into the basement. They give the girl the panna cotta to eat. During the night Baharat does not wake up and Goreng decides that the girl is the message. When the platform sinks again the next day, he drives the girl into the cellar. Trimagasi convinces him to get down, since the embassy doesn't need a messenger, and the girl goes up again alone.

analysis

interpretation

For the critic Lucas Barwenczik is The shaft a critical allegory on capitalism with a class hierarchy from more wealthy (the superiors) and destitute (the lower); a parable on the brutality of social inequality, the spatial poetics of which paints a bitter caricature of the “trickle down economics” ". Anna Menta writes for Decider :" It is clear that the prison and the platform are a metaphor for capitalism. If only the prisoners would agree to work together and ration resources, like in a democratic-socialist society, everyone would be fed. Instead, there is a "winner gets everything" capitalist society that leaves people dying on the ground and eating each other. " In terms of hierarchy, he is compared in particular with Bong Joon-ho's Snowpiercer , "in which all classes of social class are in a train hissing around the globe; the rich at the front, the poor at the back of the train. For" Der Schacht “Gaztelu-Urrutia is now shifting this principle - in the truest sense of the word - into the vertical,” s o Antje Wessels . Ian Sandwell for Digital Spy emphasizes the difference that the system in the shaft is completely random due to the monthly change of levels. That one could possibly also taste of the higher life makes everyone selfish. The inmates “seem trapped by their own egoism too. Eating enough to survive is not enough. It is also necessary to humiliate and humiliate those below you, ”writes Nathaniel Muir.

Therefore, the film is not a symbol of the saying “eat the rich”, but rather shows how the poor devour one another or are forced to fight and eat one another. Getting up, however, does not lead to more empathy towards the lower, and the idea of ​​redistributing wealth is laughed at once you get higher. Because, says Jon Atkinson for ScreenRant , "as often supported by real billionaires, if they had the chance, people from the lower classes would be as greedy and corrupt as the upper class is perceived by them." A higher position confers "a selfish one." Feeling of privilege and the chance - literally and figuratively - to shit on the less fortunate. ”This behavior is worked out in the reception especially at Trimagasi, who is at the beginning on a“ middle level ”, so neither at the top nor far below , and has people both above and below. Atkinson calls Trimagasis "blatant disregard for the lower and insignificant complaints about the upper." According to Amy Nicholson for Variety, he spit on the remains to feel powerful in his position. He justifies his hatred of those below him by saying that they would too. Although his story behind the knife is an anti-capitalist tirade, he firmly believes in capitalism, which is why he rejects the proposal of rationing as communism .

With such a human character, the question arises as to how a change can be brought about in this broken system. Here Goreng Imogiri is contrasted. When their attempts to convince through pleading and reason fail, he has to intervene with threats. "Unfortunately, this does not help to influence the upper levels where change actually has to begin, and thus does little to overtake the entire system." The script is less attuned to a systematic revolution than to the personal responsibility that drives this, says David Ehrlich from IndieWire : Goreng himself has to be the change he wants to see in the world. He and Baharat come up with the idea of ​​sending a message upstairs, which will eventually become the girl. She interprets Atkinson as follows: “Representing hope for the future and innocence, the level 333 child delivers the perfect message for those at level 0 and the administration that something must change. Their meager existence, placed alongside the hope often associated with children, makes it unmistakably clear that children are often the most damaging victims of the class struggle. ”The film closes with the girl going upstairs. “The ending leaves open whether the message is enough to convince the people at the top to change their way of life. Goreng did everything he could. Now it's in her hands. ”As the girl returns upstairs into the light, Goreng decides to stay in the dark with Trimagasi. Because while he was trying to change something, he also changed himself and took over previously condemned acts of Triwizard in order to survive, namely murdering and eating human flesh. “Goreng's actions give him an unbiased view of everything Trimagasi and others have done. Having done the same, Goreng is now a representation of the system he wanted to break open. He is a symbol of the old way of existing and opposite to everything that the girl represents. "

Atkinson from ScreenRant also sees a religious undertone in the film, because the pit is also a term for hell . With the seemingly endless plains, Goreng's descent can be compared to Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy . In addition, level 0 with the exquisite dishes appears heavenly or heavenly with a single god-like overseer over the cooks. No words can be heard here, but violin music. At the lowest point, however, Goreng decided to stay in order to be fried for his sins. At the same time, he is often referred to as the Messiah or Savior, so it is fitting that he sacrifices himself to undo the sins embodied in the pit.

Stylistic devices

With the conception of the setting, director Gaztelu-Urrutia creates an oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere in which the location is both narrow and wide. “The inmates can look up and down the shaft. These pictures show the seeming endlessness of the structure. The fact that nobody knows how big the tower actually is only contributes to its size. ”At the same time, the space and freedom of movement within the cells are severely restricted by the hole in the middle, as is the freedom of action in relation to the platform by the time limit, such as as long as it stays on one level and the food is available. "There is simply never enough space or time for the characters to do or say what they have to." The film is designed with a minimal aesthetic due to the arrangement of the cells and is mainly held in a dark stone gray. “If there is color, it is usually dark red or blue. […] A color as simple as simple green stands out for the audience. ”The tightness also leads to extreme closeness, expressed in the proximity of the camera. In the cell, Goreng is shown for the first time through a “zoom so strong that you can count your eyelashes. And there's no reason for cinematographer Jon D. Dominguez to step backwards - the set is a gray box, the daily feeding is disgustingly shot with extreme close-ups on dirty fingers, their mouths to the sound of smacking rice Plug. […] Even a fantasized love scene between Goreng and [Miharu] zooms in on their tongues. ”The use of body fluids, literally pissing or pissing at each other, also contributes to the disgust through repugnance that makes even the most basic human functions appear to induce vomiting. “The soundtrack smacks of sick bodies with the music whenever someone sinks their teeth into a chunk of food, and that before people themselves are on the menu. It doesn't take long before even the delicacies on the platform seem inedible, and Gaztelu-Urrutia will quench your appetite at just the right time for an uninvited sex scene; their pictures in and of themselves are surprisingly tasteful, but you won't even be a bit in the mood to enjoy them. Our basic functions get so loathsome that Goreng's optimism becomes the only palatable option. "

production

Screenwriter Pedro Rivero , director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia , actor Zorion Egileor , producer Carlos Juárez and leading actor Iván Masagué

Directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia , the script was written by David Desola and Pedro Rivero .

Iván Massagué can be seen in the lead role of Goreng, Zorion Eguileor plays his cellmate Trimagasi. Alexandra Masangkay took on the role of Miharu, who is looking for her daughter, Antonia San Juan plays Imoguiri, who used to be part of the administration herself. Emilio Buale plays Baharat who tries to climb to the top level with a rope.

The film music was composed by Aránzazu Calleja . The soundtrack album was released for download on June 12, 2020 by the Plaza Mayor Company.

The film premiered on September 6, 2019 at the Toronto International Film Festival . In Spain it was shown for the first time in October 2019 at the Sitges Film Festival. On March 20, 2020, he was accepted into the Netflix program.

reception

Protection of minors

The shaft can only be seen in Germany on Netflix after entering the youth protection code. In her review, the film critic Antje Wessels refers to the isolated moments of shock, for example when bodies suddenly fall through the shaft from above, hit the ends of the platforms or rush straight down into the depths. The images would no later then particularly intense when Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia drove controlled climes of cannibals - horror subgenres touches. A splatter orgy was The shaft does not, and the director put the violence never the pure pleasure because of. In the film, violence is primarily used as a means of presenting information about his characters, and murders are seldom cut to the act, but rather to the judgmental gaze of a third party, notes Lucas Barwenczik from the film service .

Reviews and success

The film has so far won over 84 percent of all Rotten Tomatoes critics .

Benjamin Lee of the Guardian explains that the film follows a diabolical recipe that was made from parts of the Cube , Saw and Snowpiercer and yet has its own piquancy. In light of the coronavirus pandemic , which is rampant in March 2020 , Lee notes that the film could remind those imprisoned at home of the need for solidarity and the importance of the collective towards the individual. The Platform is a horror film that has something to say, and Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia leads the viewer deeper and deeper into an increasingly evil hell landscape, which deals with changing moral points of view and gets by with little optimism. When Jedermann enters Goreng Level 47 with a certain hope and naively expects respect from those from "above" and decency from his cellmate, it quickly becomes clear that greed and fear rule everything here: "Goreng is called a communist because he's at believes the importance of rations, and throughout the film we see how his journey between the many platforms affects his own morals and strategy, forcing him to do things that he would have previously thought impossible. ” The Platform is a grim one small film that moves at such a wild speed that you can stick to the screen, gasp for air and wince and vaguely suspect how bad things can get.

Lucas Barwenczik from Filmdienst points in his critique on films like High Rise by Ben Wheatley , with luxurious feasts on the roof and despair in the lower floors, which are also metaphors for an unequal society.

Dani Di Placido of Forbes writes that the film is a wonderful metaphor for the tremendous terror of capitalism, in which each individual pampers himself and enjoys his or her time "above" while the invisible masses "below" eat themselves alive. Almost no one benefits from such a system, but it stubbornly resists change and makes individuals take as much as possible while it is there. The Platform offers more than just food for thought, every single scene also provides the viewer with new information and keeps the adrenaline flowing. The Platform is a film that mocks the rampant inequality of modern life and resembles the creeping paranoia of life in quarantine.

Alfonso Rivera from the online cinema magazine Cineuropa says that beneath the surface of a dystopian fairy tale and a science fiction thriller lies a complex but elaborate observation of our crazy, selfish and consumer-oriented civilization, in which the lack of a fair distribution of wealth leads to chaos and destruction or seems to lead to self-destruction or some other unimaginable result.

The film critic Antje Wessels thinks that it is a bit of a shame about Der Schacht that the makers want to explain everything a little too much in the end, which starts with a handful of interspersed flashbacks that reveal more about the most important characters than it is for the film experience would actually be necessary. With too much breakdown of what is shown, the attraction of the Mysterium Schacht is even lost to some extent. The film, similar to the Cube , which is related from an architectural point of view , would be made to dismiss the viewer with the question of what he has actually seen in the past hour and a half. Wessels sums up, The Schacht is a rather clumsy social allegory, which the director implemented in an appealing and bloody way. In the last third in particular, however, the film loses some of its attractiveness.

A few days after its launch on Netflix, the film took the lead among the streaming provider's most popular films.

Awards (selection)

Goya 2020

Premis Gaudí 2020

  • Award for the best visual effects (Mario Campoy, Irene Río and Iñaki Madariaga)
  • Nomination for Best Screenplay (David Desola and Pedro Rivero)
  • Nomination for Best Non-Catalan Film (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, David Desola and Pedro Rivero)

Sitges Film Festival 2019

  • Award for best feature film with the audience award (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia)
  • Award for the best visual effects (Iñaki Madariaga)
  • Award for Best New Artist in the director's trade with the Citizen Kane Award (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia)
  • Award for best film in the Official Fantàstic Competition (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia)

Torino Film Festival 2019

  • Received the Scuola Holden Award (David Desola and Pedro Rivero)
  • Nomination for Best Fiction Film for the City of Turin Prize (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia)

Toronto International Film Festival 2019

  • Awarded the Grolsch People's Choice Award in the Midnight Madness section (Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia)

In addition, Der Schacht is in the preselection for the European Film Award 2020 .

synchronization

The German dubbing was based on a dialogue book and the dialogue direction by Daniel Montoya on behalf of Interopa Film GmbH, Berlin.

actor Voice actor role
Iván Massagué Alexander Doering Goreng
Emilio Buale Peter Sura Baharat
Antonia San Juan Sabina Trooger Imoguiri
Alexandra Masangkay Runa Aléon Miharu
Zorion Eguileor Uli Krohm Trimagasi

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Lucas Barwenczik: The shaft. In: Filmdienst. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b Anna Menta: 'The Platform' on Netflix Ending Explained: What Did That Disturbing Ending Mean? In: decider.com, March 20, 2020.
  3. ↑ a b c d Antje Wessels: The shaft. In: wessels-filmkritik.com, March 20, 2020.
  4. ^ Ian Sandwell: The Platform ending explained: Netflix thriller could not be more timely . In: Digital Spy . March 20, 2020. Accessed March 21, 2020.
  5. ^ A b Nathaniel Muir: The Platform (El Hoyo) Review: A bloody examination of elitism and fine dining . In: Adventures in Poor Taste . October 7, 2019. Accessed March 21, 2020.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Jon Atkinson: Netflix's The Platform Ending Explained: What Were The Pit & The Child? . In: ScreenRant . March 20, 2020. Accessed March 21, 2020.
  7. ↑ a b Amy Nicholson: Film Review: 'The Platform' . In: Variety . September 10, 2019. Accessed March 21, 2020.
  8. ↑ a b David Ehrlich: 'The Platform' Review: Netflix Horror Movie Flips 'Cube' Into Cannibalistic Allegory for Capitalism . In: IndieWire . March 17, 2020. Accessed March 21, 2020.
  9. ↑ 'The Platform' ('El Hoyo') Soundtrack to Be Released. In: filmmusicreporter.com, June 2, 2020.
  10. ^ The Platform. In: Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  11. ^ Benjamin Lee: The Platform review - fiendish Netflix thriller about a gory battle for food. In: The Guardian, March 20, 2020.
  12. ↑ Dani Di Placido: Netflix's 'The Platform' Review: The Perfect Parable For A Pandemic. In: Forbes, March 21, 2020.
  13. ^ Alfonso Rivera: Review: The Platform. In: cineuropa.org, October 16, 2019.
  14. ↑ Dominik Hayon: Netflix: These are the top 10 films & series on March 23, 2020. In: chip.de, March 23, 2020.
  15. ↑ Jamie Lang and Emilio Mayorga: Pedro Almodóvar's 'Pain and Glory' Sweeps Spanish Academy Goya Awards. In: Variety, January 25, 2020.
  16. ↑ Guardonades - XII Premis Gaudí. In: academiadelcinema.cat. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  17. ↑ Palmarès Sitges 52. In: sitgesfilmfestival.com. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
  18. ^ Emilio Mayorga: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's debut 'The Platform' Tops Sitges Awards. In: Variety, October 12, 2019.
  19. ^ Vittoria Scarpa: A White, White Day declared Best Film at 37th Turin Film Festival. In: cineuropa.org, 2019.
  20. ^ First Part of EFA Feature Film Selection Includes 32 Films. . In: europeanfilmawards.eu, August 18, 2020. Retrieved August 28, 2020 (English).