The Platform

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia's The Platform is a brutally effective high-concept horror allegory about capitalism, resource distribution, and human nature. Prisoners are stacked in a vertical facility where a platform of food descends one level at a time — those at the top feast, those at the bottom starve. The premise is simple enough to fit on a napkin, but the film explores it with unflinching violence and philosophical rigor. Iván Massagué's Goreng attempts to impose fairness on a system designed to reward selfishness. The film became Netflix's breakout hit during the 2020 lockdowns, when its themes of inequality felt devastatingly prescient.