French international sales company Andana Films has boarded Tawfik Sabouni’s The Other Side of the Sun which receives its world premiere in Berlin Panorama 2026.
The synopsis reads how, in this haunting and powerful documentary, the director returns to the Syrian capital of Damascus in the immediate aftermath of the Assad regime’s collapse. There he meets four fellow former detainees of the notorious former Saidnaya prison. Through bold re-enactments inside the infamous prison itself, the documentary turns memory into testimony, revealing resilience and an unbroken will to survive.
“Tawfik Sabouni offers a powerful film and an essential, lasting document about the prison of Saidnaya,” says Stephan Riguet, managing director of Andana Films. “The film reveals the horror of a system and its executioners, while also bringing out a profound human beauty born from the protagonists’ listening and solidarity.”
“This film is a testimony carried by the voices of five survivors,” director Sabouni adds. “Through our memories and our stories, it seeks to understand what happened behind the walls of Saidnaya and the reasons for the disappearances.”
Viewers are confronted with the truly horrific testimonies of Sabouni, Mahmoud Kadah, Abdelkafi Alhaj, Mohammad Hamki and Abdelhamid Jadou, all of whom suffered horrific, degrading treatment at different times, the project nores state.
Filmed inside the former prison, The Other Side of the Sun becomes a stark act of remembrance, revealing the enduring marks of imprisonment while giving presence to those who disappeared, thus offering families still searching for answers a powerful testament in Syria’s ongoing reckoning with its past.
Damascus-born Sabouni was arrested and ended up in Saidnaya while filming the Syrian uprising in March 2011. After his release, he studied film direction at INSAS in Brussels, graduating in 2022. He also worked as a director for radio and as a dubbing actor for TV. His short films On the Edge of Madness (2021) and Stateless (2022) screened at several international festivals.
The director co-developed the script with Laurine Estrade. DOP is Sameer Orabi, while the editing was in the hands of Dani Abo Louh. Bilal Sultani signed for the sound, with Lucas Lauwers responsible for the sound editing and Alek Goosse for sound mixing.
The Other Side of the Sun is produced by Julie Freres for Dérives (Belgium), Jean-Baptiste Bonnet for Habilis Productions (France), and co-produced by Hanne Phlypo for Clin d’œil Films (Belgium). Ziad Ali of Art Maker Production handled production duties in Syria.
