Cynzia stands in the middle of a darkened road, staring up at the hanging stoplight as it slowly blinks from green to yellow to red. She’s dressed in a ratty old bathrobe that has moons and stars on it. Her hair is disheveled. She does not seem well. The stoplight changes color. She stares.

“I don’t know when I got to be so scared all the time,” she says directly to camera. Is she in therapy, reliving trauma from years ago? Is she in her own head, explaining herself to herself? Disjointed scenes play, one after the other: luminescent black and white shots of her drawing a celestial mural on her bedroom wall, her laying on the ground with a crescent moon projected over her, happy in a confetti shower with the ever-present moon behind her.

“My whole life I always believed I was lost. Then I looked up.”

You Don’t Have To Take Orders From The Moon (yes, that’s the title) is nineteen minutes of abstract nonlinear Lynchian storytelling, dreamlike interludes, and nightmarish violence from a very unreliable narrator who has found salvation/love/acceptance from the moon. Friends and relatives show up at different points to try to help her as she spirals further and further into mental illness.

Director & writer Jaina Cipriano has effectively put together an effective character study from the viewpoint of the fractured character in question. Cynzia, ably played by Madeline Bugeau-Heartt, can be lucid and heartfelt and sincere in her emotions even as you know that what she’s saying (and doing) is, to understate things, not particularly healthy. Or sane. Bureau-Heartt does a terrific job showing us all facets of this character and giving her to us full force.

To be honest, these kinds of experimental short films are not always for everyone. Surreal, low budget, black and white (although it does dissolve to color as it wraps up) flicks are not everybody’s cup of tea, and that is totally understandable. But if you can put aside your preconceptions and get into this vibe (and turn up your hearing aid a bit because the dialogue is sometimes muddy and hard to hear), there’s some fascinating stuff going on.

You Don’t Have To Take Orders From The Moon is available on YouTube. Let the dreamscape wash over you.