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Death Without Mercy is a documentary by Syrian filmmaker Waad Al-Kateab, which follows the experiences of two Syrian families over the course of 10 days, after the Turkey-Syria earthquakes strike on February 6, 2023. It was the highest scale of earthquake to hit the region after the 1939 Erzincan earthquake and left almost 60,000 people dead.
Death Without Mercy was an collaborative effort of Al-Kateab with Fadi Al Halabi and Fuad Sayed Issa, who live-documented the scenes. The documentary was first released in Arabic on October 11, 2024. Death Without Mercy is set to make its digital release on February 6, 2025, and will be available for streaming on Paramount Plus.
Parts of northeastern Syria and southern Turkey were mainly affected by the earthquake, but the land waves could be experienced up to Egypt and the Black Sea. Thousands of people were left under rubble, while millions of Syrians were displaced from their homes in a nation that had been already troubled by war.
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Where to stream Death Without Mercy
According to Variety (January, 17 2025), Waad Al-Kateab’s documentary Death Without Mercy, will be available for streaming on Paramount Plus, on February 6, 2025. The documentary will also be screened across three regions in Syria. This marks the second year since the Turkey-Syria earthquake occured.
Paramount Plus comes with two subscription plans for new subscribers:
- Paramount+ Essential comes for a price of $7.99/month after a 1-week free trial. This plan comes with ads, and allows streaming on up to three devices at once, while also providing access to select SHOWTIME series.
- Pramount+ with SHOWTIME comes for a price of $12.99/month after a 1-week free trial. Viewers can watch all the content on this platform without any ads except for live TV. Subscribes have the option to download movies and shows. They can also access all of the content on SHOWTIME.
What is Death Without Mercy about?
Death Without Mercy is a documentation of the disastrous aftermath of the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake, which hit near the Turkish city of Gaziantep, where the filmmaker Waad al-Kataeb's family was residing. In an article by The New Arab, she revealed living in East London at the time of the incident.
She only got to know about it later in the morning after she found thousands of messages directed to her. Waad al-Kataeb was living outside of Turkey because of her refugee status. Hence, she started contributing towards working for the victims from London itself.
Waad al-Kataeb went on to collaborate with Fadi Al Halabi and Fuad Sayed Issa. The duo embarked on a journey to capture the intimate struggles faced by two Syrian families, in the aftermath of the calamity.
“When we were watching the failure of the UN, the international community, the Turkish government, it was more reason to shout out and ask for help […] But also for us, it’s about saving the memories. It’s about not letting this just pass as if it’s a normal thing; it’s to call for justice,” al-Kataeb said.
Death Without Mercy was created after scanning through hundreds of hours of human-documented footage from the affected areas, added with surveillance camera tapes, news clips, drone shots, and archive footage.
The documentary offers a first-person view of witnessing the 2023 Turkey-Syria earthquake. Clouds of dust filled the air as entire buildings collapsed into rubble. Entire localities were wiped out, leaving thousands of dead bodies littered on the streets, and inside rubble.
The first earthquake arrived with a magnitude of 7.8, and the second jolt arrived with a magnitude of 7.6 a few hours later. In the beginning, both Fadi Al Halabi and Fuad Sayed Issa rushed back to their families in the city of Antakya. They found their entire city in rubble. As per The New Arab, 16 members of Fadi's family, including his parents and siblings, died in the earthquake.
However, Fuad found his wife under the rubble of their residence Rönesans Rezidans, including around 1000 more people. Fuad's wife and their youngest son Sami, were rushed to the hospital, while their other son was found dead, still wearing his school uniform.
Death Without Mercy is produced by Hasan Kattan, Lawrence Elman, Ben De Pear, and Sophie Daniel.
This MTV Documentary became the official 2024 selection for multiple film festivals, including the Sheffield International Documentary Festival, El Gouna Film Festival, and Zurich Film Festival.
American television producer Sheila Nevins served as the executive producer of Death Without Mercy. She was the first person to call Waad al-Kataeb and head the documentary. The filmmaker, in a Variety article, published on January 17, 2025, stated:
“Sheila was a major part of this film. The moment we got on a call, I heard someone who was very passionate, who cared so much, and who was so angry. She had the same anger I had as Syrian, who had been let down by the whole world and by this unbelievable disaster."
She added:
"So, for me, it was a very eye-opening moment because I knew I was in safe hands. Sheila was going to fight for me and let me tell the story in the best possible way.”
According to The New Arab, Waad al-Kataeb was arranging for her parents to return home. She stated creating Death Without Mercy, was her way of raising awareness and completing her responsibility as a filmmaker and a part of her community. Waad al-Kataeb hoped to overcome her status as a refugee and return to Turkey one day.
Death Without Mercy is the third documentary by Waad Al-Kateab, who had earlier worked on critically praised works including For Sama (2019) and We Dare to Dream (2023).
Fadi Al Halabi is a short cinematographer, who is best known for his Oscar-wiining 2016 documentary The White Helmets (2016). Fuad Sayed Issa is a social worker who is the founder of the humanitarian group Violet, which is completely operated by Syrian refugees.
Check our other articles for recommendations on the best disaster documentaries to watch.
