The short film Her Body (2018), directed by Juan Avella (Venezuela), tells the story of Gina, an undocumented Latina whose abusive American boyfriend, Erick, has left her for dead after brutally hitting her. The film's narration begins by showing us Gina's body wrapped in a large piece of plastic covered in her blood. She is gasping for air and, like a caterpillar about to emerge from its cocoon, she is wriggling to free herself. Erick and another unidentified man enter the dark storage room where they are keeping Gina. Armed with an axe and a kitchen knife, they come ready to cut her body into pieces to sell to organ traffickers: her body is now merchandise. While this is happening, the gruesome violence and suspenseful tone is constantly interrupted with flashbacks of Gina's life with Erick. Another type of violence, much subtler, enters the plot. He was possessive and controlling, but like the classic abuser, he acted like a loving, devoted partner: ‘He is a sweetheart,’ Gina even tells her sister. In the end, with the help of her sister, Sara, who was able to track her down, Gina saves herself from the most gruesome death. In a turn of events, after fighting and killing the men, Gina and Sara impersonate the dealers, sell the men's body parts to the traffickers, and leave the house.

In under eleven minutes, this short film raises a number of issues. The first one is: whose body is it really? Gina's body is seen as an object to be controlled by others (men) and as a commodity to be inserted in the global market: at some point, Erick's accomplice assures him that ‘by midnight, half her limbs are going to be in Europe being sold to pharmaceutical companies and shit’. To potentially save other, more privileged bodies, through scientific research and the creation of pharmaceutical drugs, marginalised and disenfranchised subjects need to be sacrificed. In this case, the body is of a woman who must remain hidden given her illegal status in the United States. Furthermore, when Gina and Sara ‘take over’ the illegal transaction and sell the two male bodies, the film suggests that they are eventually able to insert themselves as agents in the capitalist logic of extreme consumption.