92 minutes / Color
Arabic / English subtitles
Release: 2026
Copyright: 2026
COMING SOON
Years ago, filmmaker Tawfik Sabouni was released from Sednaya, the infamous Syrian prison known as “the other side of the sun”. In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of Assad’s regime and the liberation of Syria’s prisons in December 2024, he returns to this site of detention to confront and reclaim the memory of his captivity.
This film does not seek to reopen wounds, but to restore what systematic violence tried to erase: voices, stories, and humanity. Built on trust and collaboration, Sabouni invites four fellow survivors of Sednaya to join him. Together, they return to the physical spaces of their imprisonment and engage in a carefully constructed reenactment of daily rituals, gestures, and moments of survival.
Filmed inside the former prison, reenactment becomes a means to express what language alone cannot. With sensitivity and restraint, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SUN confronts the viewer with the enduring scars of imprisonment, creating an experience that is profoundly unsettling and emotionally devastating. By restoring presence to those who were disappeared, the film bears witness to the suffering of survivors and to the families still searching for answers amid Syria’s ongoing reckoning with the legacy of its prisons.
“The film is a work of remembrance about the abuses perpetrated by guards in the pay of the Syrian regime in Saidnaya prison, north of Damascus. There is something deeply moving about seeing these five men give birth to an unwavering brotherhood born out of the suffering of their bruised bodies and souls. In a fleeting ray of sunshine, they exchange the light-hearted moments of their love stories, devastated by prison.” —Cineuropa
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