This is the release of the week on Netflix. This Friday, the platform welcomes El Hoyo, a new kid in Spanish cinema. El Hoyo (The Platform in English), is a science fiction film directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. Science fiction, but also horror…. Written by David Desola and Pedro Rivero, it stars Ivan Massagué in the role of a man stuck in a mysterious tower that looks like a prison… Sensitive souls abstain. A prison. 2 people per cell. A hole in the center. Goreng, a man without history, finds himself trapped in this mysterious tower without knowing why. His cellmate, an elderly man, warns him:
"There are 3 categories of people. Those who are above, those who are below, and those who fall."
A surprising hierarchy
El Hoyo is a confusing film full of mysteries. On the one hand: an uncompromising chef, an efficient and diligent brigade, dishes worthy of a gourmet restaurant. On the other: ruthless prisoners, cells reduced to the bare minimum and a hundred floors. Only one thing in common: the absence of empathy. In this tower where everyone fights for his survival, Goreng, freshly arrived, seems to be the only one to show a minimum of humanity. 
Gaztelu-Urrutia tries in this feature film to denounce the selfish and animal attitude of everyone in our society. In a world where the law of the strongest reigns, the director draws a parallel between the richest in our society and those at the top of the tower. Here, food can be compared to money, where only the leftovers of the wealthiest reach the poorest. From the beginning of the film Goreng realizes that the only way to eat is to end up on the highest floors. Leaving the viewer in a constant blur, Gaztelu-Urrutia distributes information in dribs and drabs , throughout the film. Ironically , the director installs a mechanism that makes the viewer hungry for additional clues, begging for more and more.
A chance of random survival
Each month has its own different level. The randomness of this distribution echoes the vagaries of life and serves as a warning that even rich, it only takes a day to find oneself among the poorest. Even if the battle to survive is not as bloody in our society, it can sometimes be more violent than we think. Gaztelu-Urritia takes great pleasure in reminding us of this. 
Despite a hundred floors and twice as many inmates, Goreng understands at his expense that he is the only one who can save his skin. Helped, sometimes betrayed and hurt, Goreng in El Hoyo is strangely reminiscent of our daily lives. The filmmaker adds (a lot) of blood, violence and special effects to what seems to be a metaphor for life and more precisely for society. In addition, the conclusion of the film is somewhat… frustrating. With hindsight, this choice of end seems obvious. In total harmony with the theme of the film, Gaztelu-Urrutia does not let us have what we want. It emphasizes once again the difficulty that humans have in being satisfied with what they have, and leaves us hungry. As enigmatic as it is merciless, El Hoyo is the perfect film for those looking to question themselves…
El Hoyo trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrmJdujuJ4Q
