documentary films

The Prison and the Priest

Peter Meienberg in Nairobi

A film by Armin Menzi und Ivo Kummer

Documentary film, XD CAM 16:9, 56 min, 2009

Author: Armin Menzi
Director: Ivo Kummer
Edit: Fränze Aerni
camera: Daniel Leippert
Sound: Olivier JeanRichard
Music and Sounddesign: Pedro Haldemann
Colour Grading: Rec TV, Christoph Walther

Producer: Ivo Kummer, Insertfilm AG
production management: Fränze Aerni

The daily work of Benedictine missionary Peter Meienberg is determined by the life of the prisoners in the men’s and women’s prisons in Nairobi. The film tells the stories of prisoners who are in close relationship with Peter Meienberg, prisons «good soul». The film also deals with the situation of crime and justice enforcement in the mega-city Nairobi and traces the causes of delinquency, as well as the winding paths of justice. In ten years prison chaplaincy Meienberg causes, with his great diplomacy and persistency, a remarkable prison reform in Kenya, as confirmed by the Kenyan Vice President and its first secretary in the film. Finally, the film also expressed that in the musty cells not only suffering and pain prevail, but there are living also joyful, grateful and hopeful people.