From New Statesman:
The funniest bit of the film Prisoners of Freedom City is when the secret policeman picks his nose. He has a good dig around while sitting outside the apartment he’s monitoring, unaware that those he’s observing have turned the tables and are filming him.
You might not expect a documentary about being under house arrest to be very amusing, but humour is one of the weapons that the dissidents Hu Jia and Zeng Jinyan use in their chronicle of the 214 days Hu has spent under house arrest in the past year. From the window of their small apartment in the ironically named Freedom City housing complex in east Beijing, he films everything he can see. In winter, the secret policemen jump up and down to keep warm. In summer, they lounge around in torpor, chatting and playing cards. They smoke and snooze and snack. Truly the life of a secret policeman is dull. [Full Text]
See also China’s Price for Protest by Lindsey Hilsum:
How the heavy hand of communism still tyrannises even the simplest of political bloggers
Plain clothes policemen track and sometimes obstruct 23-year-old Zeng Jinyan, Chinas most famous dissident blogger, every move.
He showed me the film in their small apartment – the police tried and failed to stop us entering. The film shows the secret police camped outside his window. [Full Text]
Watch a very short clip of Prisoners of Freedom City:
