Diksha Sundriyal
The world is a cruel place and the increasing disparity between the rich and the poor is what makes it all the worse. Those who have wealth and means have too much of it. And those without it, have to live and, often, die with the same deficiency of resources. Is it then fair that while some enjoy surplus food, along with the luxury to waste it, there are others who have to starve to death? Will we ever achieve a sense of equilibrium in our severely imbalanced society? And if so, who will take the responsibility to bring about that change?
Netflix’s ‘The Platform’ deals with this question, and many more, in its haunting representation of our world. Apart from its brutal and violent form of storytelling, it also relies heavily on its surroundings to set the mood of the story. If you want to know where it has been filmed, here’s the answer.
The Platform Filming Locations
While there are a number of things in ‘The Platform’ that make us wonder about the world we live in and the societal constructs that have been created to enlarge the gap between the rich and the poor, one of the key elements of the movie that draws us in is the universality that it is infused with. Even though we know that the film is set somewhere in Spain, a specific city or town is not mentioned in it. This adds another layer to the story, making it more approachable for the international audience in terms of connecting it with their own surroundings. It is not confined by a location, and hence, can happen anywhere in the world. However, if you had to lock it down to one particular place, it would be Bilbao. This is where the shooting of the entire film took place.
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Bilbao, Spain
Because ‘The Platform’ is set in one place that is restricted from all ends, we get a very confined sense of space in the film. No outdoor locations were necessary for the purpose of the story, so the filming took place in the sets that were constructed specially for the film. The prison cells were built of cement and director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia was very specific about them being claustrophobic and seemingly impregnable.
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The set was built in a Red Cross facility in a port in Bilbao. A lot of architectural insight went into the construction of the set, to make it viable for filming as well as serve the purpose of the story well. There are 333 levels in The Hole, with an additional below the last one and a zero level where food is laid down before it descends to the prisoners. For the purpose of filming, only two levels were created. The interiors were changed every time the cell number changed for the protagonist. The look for the additional cells, which appeared like staring into the abyss, was added in post-production with the help of special effects.
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