An urgent message delivered in a powerful animated short film, Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado (As If the Earth Had Swallowed Them) is being released online during the UN 16 Days of Activism (November 25 – December 10), a global campaign that calls attention to the pressing need to end violence against women and girls. The laureled film by Natalia León is one of the animated works under consideration for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short.
Each year, the 16 Days of Activism highlight the systemic nature of gender-based violence, the emotional and social impact it leaves behind, and the responsibility shared by institutions, governments and citizens to make this violence visible and no longer acceptable.
The release of Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado during this period is meaningful. The winner of this year’s Sundance Jury Award for animation explores the lingering trauma caused by feminicide in Mexico. Using autofiction, the film reflects on how violence infiltrates daily life, memory, and even the spaces we consider home. León has often described the project as born from a personal need to articulate a fear that had become omnipresent, a fear she refuses to normalize.
“I wanted to make this film as a way to refuse that fear,” the director explains. “I didn’t want to accept the idea that violence against women is something we get used to. Even in Toulouse (France), when I walk and see a trash bag, I think of these stories. I hope the audience will remember all the women to whom these things happened.”
The film’s aesthetic, delicate 2D animation shifting between color and black-and-white, creates a necessary distance. Instead of reproducing graphic images, León uses metaphor to convey the violence without showing it explicitly.
Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado is a Mexican story made within a French production ecosystem, yet deeply anchored in its cultural roots. León created the visual identity herself, built the environments from real locations, recorded atmospheric sounds in Mexico City, and insisted on working with Mexican voices. This authenticity resonates strongly with audiences across countries.
Sharing the film during the 16 Days of Activism is a way to join a global moment of visibility and reflection, not by repeating statistics, but by offering a story that speaks directly to the emotional and psychological impact of feminicide on the women who survive, on those who remember, and on those who refuse to remain silent.
Starting today, Como si la tierra se las hubiera tragado is available to watch on YouTube in the Americas. The film is also available on ARTE in France and Germany, on Movistar+ in Spain, and throughout the rest of the world on Vimeo.
