Oscars: Syria Selects Saydnaya Prison Hybrid Doc ‘The Other Side Of The Sun’ In First Post-Assad Entry

Syria has submitted Tawfik Sabouni’s The Other Side of the Sun as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film category of the the 99th Academy Awards.

It is the first film submitted by Syria since the ousting of dictator Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 and the establishment of a transitional government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a devastating near 14-year civil war.

It also marks the first selection made by the newly established Syrian Oscar committee overseen by the General Organization for Cinema and accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The selection also holds significance for its setting of the notorious real-life Saydnaya prison, known as the ‘Human Slaughterhouse’, where 30,000 people are estimated to have been killed by the Assad Regime, and tens of thousands more were held on sham charges and tortured.

“The selection of The Other Side of the Sun comes within a distinctive cinematic and humanitarian context,” said the General Organisation for Cinema. “The film explores the experience of imprisonment in Saydnaya Prison, one of the most prominent detention sites associated with Syria’s recent history and collective memory during the previous decades of rule.

The Other Side of the Sun is based on the experiences of its director Sabouni, who was imprisoned there, as well as four other former inmates who survived.

Following the fall of the regime in December 2024, Sabouni returned to Saydnaya as a filmmaker alongside several other survivors, to revisit their experiences of detention. Through reenactment, the film brings their memories and testimonies to the screen, conveying aspects of their suffering that words alone cannot fully capture.

The film also serves as a documentary record of the memories of detainees and missing persons and their families. Specialized sources have described the film as a work that confronts the legacy of Syria’s prison and detention system through memory, testimony, and the restoration of survivors’ voices.

“I am deeply happy and moved by this selection. This moment is the culmination of years of hard work, years during which I carried this film on my own, despite the doubts, the obstacles and the weight of such a responsibility. To see this project come to fruition today and find its place on such a stage is an immense personal and collective victory,” said Sabouni.

“But beyond the artistic journey, the true significance of this selection lies in the voice it gives to those whom others have sought to silence. The stories of the men and women who lost their lives in the prisons of the Assad regime will never be forgotten. Their memory, their suffering and their dignity will be forever etched in our minds and presented to the eyes of the world. It is to them, above all, that this selection belongs.”

The Other Side of the Sun premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlinale earlier this year and has since participated in several international festivals and received awards at the Amman International Film Festival, including the Jury Award, the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award, and the Audience Award in the Arab Documentary Feature Competition.

The film is produced by Dérives (Belgium), Habilis Productions (France) and Clin d’Oeil Films (Belgium), with international sales handled by Andana Films.