Madonna wipes Instagram, releases short film 'Funeral Rites'

Is Madonna gearing up for her new era?

Her Instagram has been largely wiped clean: As of Thursday morning the only two posts are a film clip of Funeral Rites, a short film she made in partnership with photographer Steven Klein and CR Fashion Book, and the cover of CR Fashion Book.

There's a link to the YouTube film on her Instagram Story, which features Madonna in a wordless role, walking around a cemetery, lying on top of gravestones in revealing lingerie, smoking, handling a pistol and getting cozy with a nun.

Madonna wrote the film and also narrates it, telling a story that is at least partly based on her real life about the death of her mother when she was young.

"When I was a child, my mother died," says the Queen of Pop. "Seeing her beautiful face in the open casket and kissing her red lips to say goodbye left a haunting memory, a deep longing, a terrible fear of abandonment."

"I would follow my father everywhere, reminding him that if he ever died, I wanted to be buried with him," she continues. "I became fascinated with cemeteries. I was not afraid of death, because I knew this was the only way I could be with my mother again."

"As life went on, I lost many people that I loved dearly," she says. "And came to look at death as a kind of doorway to eternal life."

Madonna revealed not long ago that she plans to release a sequel to her 2005 album Confessions on a Dance Floor. It's not clear if the film is a standalone project or if it's part of her new musical era.