Andana Films boards Berlinale Panorama-selected The Other Side of the Sun
French international sales company Andana Films has boarded Tawfik Sabouni’s powerful The Other Side of the Sun which will receive its world premiere as part of the Panorama section of this year’s Berlinale. In this haunting and powerful documentary, the director returned to the Syrian capital of Damascus in the immediate aftermath of the Assad regime’s collapse. There he met 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.”
Years after his release from the notorious Syrian prison, also known as ‘the other side of the sun’, the director returned to the site of his captivity which is no longer in use. Joined by four fellow survivors, he re-enters the physical spaces of their imprisonment - not to re-open wounds but to reclaim what systematic violence tried to erase, using carefully crafted re-enactments of daily rituals and moments of survival to express what words cannot.
“This film is a testimony carried by the voices of five survivors,” Sabouni explains. “Through our memories and our stories, it seeks to understand what happened behind the walls of Saidnaya and the reasons for the disappearances.”
The 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.
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 uproar in March 2011. After his release, he studied film directing 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 (L’aute câté du soleil) 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.
All available / downloadable assetsThe film is co-produced by RTBF (Télévision belge), WIP - Wallonie Image Production, Shelter Prod, Al Jazeera Documentary Channel and the Red Sea Fund. It was supported by the Centre du Cinéma et de l’Audiovisuel de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, the CNC, Région Normandie, SCAM, La Culture avec la Copie Privée, Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF), Taxshelter.be, ING, the Tax Shelter of the Federal Government of Belgium, Coopération belge au développement, the European Union and IMS.
Andana Films is an international sales company dedicated to documentaries. Since its inception, the company has built a strong relationship with filmmakers, focusing on the financing side to help them secure funding and pre-buys. The company’s editorial line comprises one-hour programmes in the fields of society, politics and history, and feature-length documentaries with an international scope.
Located some 30km north of Damascus, Saidnaya Prison was mainly used to detain political opponents, activists and protesters against the Assad regime. It was the scene of systematic torture and mass executions. Tens of thousands of Syrians disappeared after being arrested and taken to Saidnaya.
Christian De Schutter
