15 Best Netflix Originals Of 2020 So Far - Ranked

This Spanish language dystopian film premiered in 2019, before moving to Netflix in 2020. It depicts a vast, vertical prison with one platform that descends through impregnable concrete cells. This platform is loaded with food and slowly lowers down through the layers, with the prisoners taking what they can, leaving little left for the starving prisoners on the bottom.

This film is a tough watch. There are moments of absurdity and comedy, yet it is a dark piece of satire. The prison is a stand-in for society, with the platform being the symbol of wealth and power, growing smaller and smaller the further down it travels.

The prisoners are driven to desperate acts, brutalising and betraying each other in an attempt to survive. The film has become something of a sleeper hit, helped along by allegorical connections to the world in the time of the coronavirus.

With a six week shoot, and production taking place chronologically, the audience can watch the desecration of the actors' bodies as they starved themselves for the role. One might ask - why watch something so grim and unpleasant?

The answer would be to offer many examples of this kind of literature from the ages. One critic compared the piece to the fury of Samuel Beckett, using Waiting for Godot as the obvious parallel. It is a film that will stay with you for a long time after you watch it.