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Dok5 – The Feature: Kingdom of Silence – voices from Syrian prisons

Nomination 2020
CIVIS AUDIO AWARD – Long Programmes

Writer:Jakob Weingartner
Editorial:Thomas Nachtigall
Direction:Jakob Weingartner
Feature / documentary, Westdeutscher Rundfunk / ORF / DLF

Content
Saydnaya, the military prison to the north of Damascus, is considered to be a death factory. Tens of thousands of people have been tortured and killed there to this day alone. As they are not allowed to see anything, survivors remember the sounds. The regime of Bashar al-Assad wants to turn Syria into a “Kingdom of Silence”. Those who are released are usually traumatised, often politically paralysed or religiously radicalised.

Excerpt from the jury’s statement
An example of what radio can be: a document of its time; expertly produced; sounds that make the memories of survivors of the Syrian terror regime sensually tangible; brilliant narrators; listeners become so closely involved in the fate of the tortured that they cannot escape.


fundamentalism    human rights   


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