Heaven Inside Us

What is madness? What is normal? Nineteen year old Ina lives with her manic depressive mother in Norway. When her mother decides to marry herself on Constitution Day, Ina starts documenting their daily life together.

Heaven Inside Us What is madness? What is normal? Nineteen year old Ina lives with her manic depressive mother in Norway. When her mother decides to marry herself on Constitution Day, Ina starts documenting their daily life together. But the filming catalyses a remarkable transformation in which love and understanding replace fear and confusion. A unique portrayal of living with psychosis.
"I'm making a movie about my mom because she's special", states Ina Roll Spinnangr. "She has a mental disorder that causes psychosis". For most of her life, Ina has looked after her mother. "When's she's sick I get stressed ... I worry that she'll say something stupid or wind up in hospital."

But her mother, Sita, doesn't believe she has a serious problem. "I get psychotic, others get drunk. It's all the same the way I see it", she reasons. Rather than being labelled mentally ill, she believes she should be praised for; "acknowledging all of my sides". She scorns people who live life by the rules or look for God in cold Churches. As she sees it; "I am God and you are God - all the people on earth are God".

When she was 20, Sita tried to kill herself. "I felt a great emptiness and tried to die by overdose. Later I got anorexia. I didn't know then but both suicide and anorexia are based on self hate". But instead of relying solely on medication, she now believes she can cure herself with the power of self love and positivity. "To change, you have to consciously create new thoughts", she explains.

One day, Sita makes a decision. "She's decided to marry and the one she wants to marry is herself", states Ina. Her mother sees the marriage ceremony as; "an amazingly powerful oath - to be true to my feelings and thoughts for ever." But when she starts talking about "changing my energy and becoming an invisible angel", her children worry she will try and kill herself again.

"She's already set the date", confides Ina's sister, Maria. "She's decided on the 17 May she will kill herself." It's the same day she plans on getting married because she doesn't want to die until she's married. But the constant talk of changing energies unnerves her children. "I'm calling the cops. You're acting like a total loon", states Maria. Ina worries that if they call the police; "she'll be committed and gone for a long time." Eventually, they call a doctor.

Sita seems to enjoy opening up to the camera. She sees it as a channel for getting her positive message across. But when Ina tries to push her to discuss the darker side of her psychosis - the times she's roamed the streets naked or the impact her illness has had on Ina's life - her mother decides to pull out of the film. "I gave you new thoughts to share and you abused my trust".

The incident forces Ina to assess her own relationship with her mother. "She thinks I'm saying she's a bad mother but I think she's very good. She's taught me so much and I don't want her to look bad", states Ina. But she also wants some sort of acknowledgement for all that she's been through. "When mum's sick I get stressed. I get asthma and back pain."

Ultimately, they make up and her mother agrees to participate in the film again. Then, Constitution Day arrives. Will her mother go through with her plans?
FULL SYNOPSIS

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