11/02/2026 - BERLINALE 2026: Tawfik Sabouni presents his first feature-length documentary, a harrowing yet deeply humane journey into the hell of Syrian prisons

Belgian-Syrian filmmaker Tawfik Sabouni unveils his first feature-length documentary, The Other Side of the Sun [+see also:
trailer
film profile], as a world premiere at the 76th Berlinale in the Panorama section. 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.

This is a subject that the director knows first-hand. In 2011, he was arrested on the street while filming the popular uprising against Bashar al-Assad's regime and sent to prison. More than a decade later, after studying film in Brussels, he reflected on how to share this experience through the medium of film. He wanted to compensate for the lack of archives and put words, images and emotions to the experiences of the nearly 180,000 Syrians who disappeared in the regime's prisons. Saidnaya is a place haunted by torture, cruelty, violence and death. With four other companions in misfortune whom he had never met but who, like him, had experienced the walls of this prison, Tawfik Sabouni returns to the now abandoned site following the fall of the al-Assad regime. Together, they decide to summon their traumatic memories through their bodies, re-enacting the daily routine of their different incarcerations, which were distinct yet so similar. From room to room in this dilapidated building, which still seems inhabited by the prisoners of the past, they remember, recount and re-enact their experiences, each playing the script of the others. All of them use their bodies and gestures, inscribing themselves in the architectural archives of the place.

Then the shared suffering that seems to be imprinted on the prison walls resurfaces. All the prisoners cried at night, they note. The testimonies of Tawfik, Mahmoud, Abdelkafi, Mohammad and Abdelhamid all follow the same thread, that of a shared humanity and their confiscated lives, of pain and mourning. They all have a desire to remember and a desire to forget. Sensations and emotions rise to the surface. Sabouni sets up a hybrid device to deploy the documentary material collected beforehand. By integrating himself narratively, physically and morally into the story, he shares the ordeal. To represent those who are absent, he goes so far as to portray them; and while we will say no more about this narrative line that complements the testimonies, it brings a touch of fiction, as if to partially and modestly rewrite history. 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. Ultimately, The Other Side of the Sun is a film about ghosts. The ghosts of these five men, who they once were and who they left behind within these walls. The ghosts of those who have disappeared, whose deaths they attempt to re-sacralise. And, in contrast, the ghosts of the cruelty of the guards and a deadly regime.

The Other Side of the Sun was produced by Dérives (Belgium) and Habilis Productions (France), and co-produced by Clin d’œil Films (Belgium). AndanaFilms (France) is handling international sales.

(Translated from French)