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In Defense of Self
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          11. – 22. March 2026

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              In Defense of Self

              In Defense of Self

              Linn Helene Løken / Norway / 2026 / World Premiere / 87 min

              The tragic killing of a Norwegian man in urgent need of psychiatric help is recounted in a film that uses his own tape recordings as a guide to ask what happened and how it could have been avoided.

              Morten Michelsen fought many battles in his life. Insomnia, mental illness, alcohol, and an attempt to write the demons out of his mind through literature. That his life ended tragically is clear from the outset in a film that, through his own tape recordings and video clips, unravels the story that led to him being shot and killed in self-defense by the Norwegian police.

              Filmmaker Linn Helene Løken rewinds the audio recordings and shows a life in and out of psychiatric care. Through the police’s explanations and reconstructions of the killing, we gain an unusually intimate insight into the system surrounding him and into the complex and vulnerable person that Michelsen was.

              ‘In Defense of Self’ shows the encounter between psychiatry and the police and raises pressing questions about responsibility, the use of force, and structural failures. Løken has created an empathetic and politically urgent film unlike anything we have seen and not least heard before, and which calls for a conversation that is long overdue.