The Prison Where I live, a film about the Burmese comedian Zarganar, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence, was screened on Thursday at the South Asia Foreign Reporters’ Club in New Delhi. The film was shown at the International Film Festival held in Jaipur, India, from January 27 to 30. It will also be screened in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia.
Democracy and human rights is the hottest issues of Burma and in the world arena, film producer Justin Temple told Mizzima. ‘They have conducted a general election in Burma but more than 2,200 political prisoners are still in prisons. Among them, Zarganar is known to the whole world for his marvelous spirit. In this film, we tell about these political prisoners by portraying his exemplary role.
The narrator of the film, Michael Mittermeier, is one of the most famous comedians in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and he has visited Burma as a tourist. Mittermeier says at the end of the film: ‘They can oppress only the body but not the soul, spirit and heart. What they fear are these things’. The film includes many insights by Zarganar, made to director Bloomstein, such as: “The people have many words that they dare not speak in their deep hearts. I am just the amplifier of these words for them’’. ‘We laugh when the people laugh, we cry when the people cry, we hate when the people hate. We must stand in front of them.’