Rob Munday

We’ve featured our fair share of surreal films on S/W, but Poppy’s Saturn might just be one of the most unusual yet. A Lynchian fever dream directed by Nicole Tegelaar, the 15-minute short leans into feeling over clarity, trading conventional narrative for a haunting, glitter-soaked journey through trauma. The result is a short that’s as visually striking as it is mystifying.

This is usually the part of a write-up where we’d dive into the plot, but as hinted earlier, that feels like a misguided approach when it comes to Poppy’s Saturn. On the surface, it’s about a sultry lounge singer haunted by visions of a ‘black-eyed man.’ But beneath its disorienting, kaleidoscopic visuals lies a bold and unconventional exploration of how we unpack troubling events from our past.

“I wanted to create a colorful and experimental sci-fi musical about trauma”

I’ll let Tegelaar explain further: “I am a huge fan of genre films. With Poppy’s Saturn, I wanted to create a colorful and experimental sci-fi musical about trauma. The story revolves around Poppy, who has to process something she has deeply buried. Therefore, I wanted the entire film to feel like a processing dream, with strange characters, locations, and situations.”

Working with “symbolism and metaphors,” Tegelaar constructs a portrait of a woman disconnected from her world. The root of that alienation – buried, unresolved emotion – doesn’t reveal itself easily, but the film’s abstract form mirrors the complexity of those internal struggles. “I wanted to approach the film’s theme thoughtfully and let it be ‘felt’ rather than explicitly stated,” she explains.

Intent on exploring sexual violence and trauma in a “nuanced and authentic way”, Tegelaar set out to subvert the way larger productions often handle such themes – typically through graphic depictions. “I wanted to do quite the opposite and never show these disturbing kind of images,” she says. Still, she acknowledges that Poppy’s Saturn contains a hint of revenge. While she doesn’t see vengeance as a solution or a way to erase trauma, she admits that “it can feel good to imagine doing something to the perpetrator.”

“I find inspiration in the colors, glitter, and glam rock of the eighties, and I also love the teen-girl Tumblr aesthetic of the 2000s” – director Tegelaar discussing her visual approach

Despite the weighty themes at its core, Poppy’s Saturn doesn’t come across as a dark film. Its vibrant palette of glitter, color, and music lifts the tone, making the short feel lighter and more approachable. That aesthetic choice makes perfect sense when you learn that Tegelaar drew inspiration from both “the glam rock of the eighties” and the “teen-girl Tumblr aesthetic of the 2000s.”

A fan of “the effects in eighties music videos,” Tegelaar leaned into pinks and purples, layers of smoke and silk, and played with kaleidoscope lenses and dreamy glow filters in Poppy’s Saturn. And she’s not done yet – with the filmmaker admitting she’d love “to go crazy with these effects” in future projects. Her next film sounds like just the place to do it: a “feminist musical horror on the myth of the vagina dentata.”