This Prison Where I Live

Year: 2010
Country: UNITED KINGDOM, GERMANY
Run Time: 91 minutes

Opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi is not the last popular figure to languish in a Burmese prison. Zarganar, a beloved stand-up comedian known for his wicked anti-government satire, is currently serving 35 years for "public order offenses." Prior to his incarceration, he had been banned from performing publicly. Still Zarganar, whose stage name means "tweezers," continued for years to fight Burmese dictatorial suppression with humor. In THIS PRISON WHERE I LIVE, British filmmaker Rex Bloomstein and German comedian Michael Mittermeier travel to Myanmar to investigate humor under dictatorship and to somehow let Zarganar know he hasn't been forgotten. Mittermeier enjoys huge success on German television for the same kind of political satire that got Zarganar jailed. He explains his admiration for his colleague: "He not only tirelessly exposes the cruelty of the military with his humor, but inspires the people to speak for themselves... Being from Germany, I think that we have a special responsibility to draw attention to people like Zarganar. As a German comedian I ask myself, what would I have done during the Nazi period? Would I have had the courage to offer mental resistance with my humor?" (In English, German, and Burmese with subtitles) – B.B.

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