Berlinale Spotlight – Panorama Dokumente: The Other Side of the Sun

Years ago, filmmaker Tawfik Sabouni was released from Saidnaya, the infamous Syrian prison also known as “the other side of the sun”. In the immediate aftermath of the fall of Assad’s regime in December 2024, the filmmaker returns to the site of his detention. He does not intend to reopen wounds but instead to restore what systematic violence tried to erase: voices, stories and humanity. Sabouni invites four fellow survivors of Saidnaya to join him. Together, they return to the physical spaces where they were tortured and dehumanised for years, and engage in a carefully constructed re-enactment of their confinement: daily rituals, gestures and moments of survival. Filmed inside the former prison, these re-enactments become a means to express what language alone cannot contain. With restraint, the film confronts the viewer with the enduring marks of imprisonment and gives a voice not only to these five men but also to those thousands who did not survive the Assad regime and whose families are still searching for answers.