Syria Submits Saydnaya Prison Film for 99th Oscars
Syria has chosen The Other Side of the Sun, directed by Tawfik Sabouni, as its candidate for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards, as reported by Deadline. The category is the Academy's award for feature films produced outside the United States.
It is the country's first submission since Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024. After a near 14-year civil war, Syria formed a transitional government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Deadline reported. The entry is also the first selection by Syria's newly established Oscar committee.
That committee is overseen by the General Organization for Cinema. It is accredited by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the body that organises the Oscars.
The film is set in Saydnaya prison, described in the report as the "Human Slaughterhouse". An estimated 30,000 people were killed there under the Assad regime. Tens of thousands more were held on sham charges and tortured.
Sabouni was imprisoned in Saydnaya himself. The film is built from his experiences and those of four other surviving former inmates. Born in Damascus, Sabouni was arrested and imprisoned in Saidnaya after filming the Syrian uprising in March 2011, according to Variety. He studied film after his release.
After the fall of the regime in December 2024, Sabouni returned to Saydnaya as a film-maker. He went with other survivors to revisit the place where they had been detained. That return shapes the film.
The title echoes what prisoners called the jail. Saidnaya was known as "the other side of the sun", according to festival listings including the Berlinale. The film premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlinale, the Berlin festival's sidebar for new cinema.
It later took three prizes in the Arab Documentary Feature Competition at the Amman International Film Festival. The wins were the Jury Award, the Audience Award and the FIPRESCI Award. The last is given by the International Federation of Film Critics.
The Other Side of the Sun was produced by Dérives in Belgium, Habilis Productions in France and Clin d'Oeil Films in Belgium. International sales, the licensing of a film to distributors territory by territory, are handled by Andana Films.
