The Moustache Brothers

In 1996 the Moustache Brothers were invited to participate as comedians in a political meeting to support the NLD of Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon. They, as usual, made political satire "Before we used to call thieves just thieves, now we just call them government. The crowd laughed but the government didn't think it was that funny. That same night they were arrested and condemned to 7 years of forced labour.
For the past 10 years they perform in their living room, since they have been banned from performing anywhere else. They perform for tourists who pay a donation of 500 kyats (3 euros) for a one hour show. That's the only source of income for the 3 brothers, the cousin, their wifes and kids and their elder parents.
I went to see it one night and the next day I was walking around Mandalay and one of them stopped me. Hi, do you have some time for tea? And he took me on his bike back to his place to have a chat. "We need the tourist, we need to get the word out there. People need to know what's going on here. It's the only hope we have for change." He showed me some clippings from papers of the visit a UN representative to Myanmar last november. "Maybe things change. I don't know. But things really need to change." During the show they show you, as probably their most valuable jewel a line of barely 2 seconds on the movie "About the boy"... "would you like to be condemned for telling a joke as it happened to one of the Moustache Brothers?".... I don't think the screenwriter will never know how much he did for them.

The show is a mix of an educational introduction into the main costumes of Myanmar: marionettes, dances and so on, but what's most interesting is the political commentary that goes on and on. "I have no fear. If I have fear, what's left? So I throw anything in there that needs to be talked about". He talks a lot about bribes and how you can be fined 50.000 k any day for driving without a helmet (most of them do) but the policeman will "forget" about it uf you can give him 20.000 on the spot. He talks about inflation: a coffee has gone up from 30 k to 180 k in 3 years and how with such a raise people need to juggle three jobs. It talks about the huge raise in HIV in the country and how if tourists really want to help we should hand out condoms. It talks about power generators, and how the ones that the government provides just give you light one every three days. The alternative is hiring the Chinese one, the expensive one, to get light for the other two days. The country is selling off to the Chinese. And goes on and on.
I bought the DVD. I will make a copy to anyone that has any interest. Please let me know.
I was just fascinated by the character and his braveness. A great topic for a documentary, I thought.