Madonna's directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, which is playing the Berlinale in the artsy "Panorama" section, opened today, and our good friends over at indieWIRE had one of the few one-on-one interviews Her Madonna-ness granted to her film fest subjects. indieWIRE reports that buzz from folks coming out of the screening was (some might say surprisingly) mostly positive.

The film, originally envisioned as a short but expanded to 85 minutes, tells the tale of "three friends desperate to better their lot in life, who must duel with the reality of their circumstances." There's A.K., a would-be rock superstar who keeps things afloat while waiting for his ship to come in by turning tricks as a cross-dresser; Holly, who trains as a ballerina by day while working as a stripper at night to survive; and Juliette, who works in a pharmacy while saving money to live her dream of moving to Africa to help children in need.

Madonna chose to show her film at Berlin and, according to the indieWIRE piece, has no plans for further fest screenings. Instead, the film's team is exploring distribution options, "both traditional and non-traditional," so you may be able to see it sooner rather than later. In the meantime, you can check out indieWIRE's excellent writeup of their Madonna interview, and see a sneak-peek three-minute scene from the film. Added bonus for all you guys out there (well, girls too, let's not make gender assumptions here) -- most of the clip is a scene of strippers practicing pole dancing. In, you know ... an artsy way.