“El orden de las cosas” is a short Spanish drama social film, released in 2010, that was directed by César Esteban Alenda and José Esteban Alenda. It portrays genre violence through shocking scenes which leads us to reflect. It starts Manuela Vellés as the victim of the genre violence; her husband Marcos as the agresor starred by Biel Durán, Javier Gutiérrez and Mariano Venancio and their son Marquitos starred by Junio Valverde. It was nominated to a Goya award as the best fiction short film.

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The film tells the story of Julia, a young woman who suffers gender violence. During the short film, she remains in the bathtub, which is like a prison from which she cannot get out. She's naked, symbolizing her vulnerability and desprotection. Her husband, Marcos, is always looking for his belt, the one he uses to beat his wife with. Julia always hides it in the bathtub because she doesn't want this violence to continue. She uses the water as a kind of protection to cover her body and hide the belt. When she feels the most comfortable is when the bathtub is full. But when the bathtub empties and the water starts to recede, revealing her naked bruised body, she feels unsheltered. As time goes by, drops fall into the water, filling the bathtub again. However, she remains the same age, she doesn't grow up as it must represent that she suffers the same hell every day. It appears their son, Marquitos, who helps his father looking for the belt. When he realizes what's going on with his family, he drops his toy, breaking it. His toy must represent his innocence being broken by realizing the truth about his family. As the film goes on, the characters grow old, except Julia, and everyday it's the same, the cycle repeats. One day, Marcos' brothers and their wives visit them, and we can see that their wives suffer gender violence too. It's a kind of family tradition. During the whole short film, Julia doesn't speak, symbolizing that she doesn't have a voice to defend herself because she's annulled. There are plenty of symbols with deep meanings.

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“El orden de las cosas” it is well-directed because after it comes over it leaves the spectator with a world of possible ends in front of them, letting them imagine how they want the film to conclude. The short film shows a circular story about water’s heigh on the bath. It is related to the vicious circle. It has four stages and four different water levels, when it is at its lowest point we associate it with the honeymoon phase where everything seems perfect, but then the water level rises again, representing the explosive stage, a cycle that can go from anger to sexual abuse. Moreover, both the music and the script, captures a certain atmosphere where at no time do we palpable the violence, but we know it is there. However, halfway through the film it may seem that the short film is slowing down or getting a bit heavy, but this detail does not end up bothering the viewer since, of course, it is completely camouflaged under the feelings and thoughts that inevitably arise in you, such as the shock, the drama, the intensity, the various hidde  enigmas and the fact that it is out of the ordinary. All of the above make it a unique film and see that it is useless and sad to wait for life to change on its own, because there is not enough courage to change the order of things, that destructive order that poisons generation after generation.

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All in all, it is worth seeing the film and all those who have not yet seen it should do so, they will not regret it and in this way they will be able to see and feel the fear that a person can experience in a situation like this or similar. “El orden de las cosas” it has managed to remove many things inside me, and it has made me show again that hope is the last thing you lose, because at the end of the short film we are left with a very hopeful message that it is never too late to ask for help and thus prevent things like this from happening. Maybe who knows, we might know a case of gender violence close to us, and we are never too late to stop it before we can no longer do it.