“How about you let me decide how I feel?” Bonnie (Stephanie Beatriz, “Brooklyn Nine- Nine”), a rape survivor, tells her boyfriend Matt (Michael Stahl-David, “Narcos”) in the trailer for “The Light of the Moon.” Bonnie has been trying to get her life back on track but finds herself unable to move on. Her frustration boils over when Matt misguidedly tries to comfort her by saying he doesn’t expect her to “get better” immediately. “Oh my god, get better?” Bonnie scoffs.

“The Light of the Moon,” which marks Jessica M. Thompson’s feature directorial debut, doesn’t depict a simple road to recovery. Bonnie initially wants to keep the assault a secret and act as if nothing happened. However, it’s not long before Bonnie realizes that her life has permanently changed — if “getting better” is even possible, it won’t be an easy, straightforward process.

“It is not a stereotypical courtroom drama, or an unbelievable rape revenge fantasy; it is an intimate and realistic portrayal of the first six weeks after a serious trauma and the struggles of one woman,” Thompson said of the film in an interview with us. “I wanted to create a raw and realistic portrayal of trauma and recovery, which is told solely from the victim’s perspective. I was sick of seeing assault overused in mainstream media — usually by male writers — as a mere plot device and it was not explored in an honest and real way. Hopefully, this film will help change that and encourage a more open dialogue about an issue that affects more than one in five women.”

“The Light of the Moon” took home the Narrative Feature Audience Award at SXSW this year. The film hits theaters November 1.