The Prison Where I Live review

Rex Bloomstein investigates the plight of a Burmese stand-up sentenced to jail

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“Comedy is more than just laughs,” says outspoken Burmese stand-up Zarganar, “it can open minds and hearts.”

It can also close them, as he discovered when the government jailed him for 35 years.

Using German comedian Michael Mittermeier as his mouthpiece, filmmaker Rex Bloomstein tries to document this outrage, but everyone’s too terrified to talk.

It’s a desperately unjust situation with, alas, slightly desperate results.

Despite some admirable journalistic derring-do and haunting archive footage, we’re left with Mittermeier repeatedly eulogising a man he’ll never meet.

Freelance Writer

Matt Glasby is a freelance film and TV journalist. You can find his work on Total Film - in print and online - as well as at publications like the Radio Times, Channel 4, DVD REview, Flicks, GQ, Hotdog, Little White Lies, and SFX, among others. He is also the author of several novels, including The Book of Horror: The Anatomy of Fear in Film and Britpop Cinema: From Trainspotting To This Is England.