The true story behind Death Without Mercy, explored

Death Without Mercy is a new documentary that was released on Paramount+ on February 6, 2025. It premiered at the Sheffield DocFest in 2024 and contains firsthand footage of the massive earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023.

Death Without Mercy, directed by Waad Al-Kateab and produced by MTV Documentary Films, is being released on the second anniversary of the shocking tragedy that claimed the lives of over 50,000 people, including several who had just fled from Syria to Turkey.

Death Without Mercy unravels the devastation that was left behind in the wake of this natural disaster that tore families apart and killed thousands. It shines a light on the immediate aftermath of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake using camera recordings, CCTV, and drone footage.

The documentary mainly follows the after-effects of the disaster through the lens of two Syrian families, who were left traumatized by the devastation.

It also explores the role of the government in the disaster as corruption and gross negligence led to the construction of buildings with subpar materials, which contributed to the massive level of destruction caused.

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The reality of the earthquake that shook Turkey in Death Without Mercy

On the early morning of February 6, 2023, around 4:17 am, a massive earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 struck the border of Turkey and Syria, with an epicenter near the city of Gaziantep, Turkey. The initial earthquake was followed by tremors with a magnitude of 7.6 after a few hours, affecting the lives of millions, including several who had been displaced from Syria.

This earthquake was one of the largest and strongest to hit Turkey, with tremors that were felt up to Egypt. In the three months after the earthquake, more than 30,000 aftershocks were reported.

Death Without Mercy shows the reality of this earthquake, which is considered to be one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history, with a collective death toll of over 60,000 from both Turkey and Syria.

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Director Waad Al-Kateab started documenting the aftermath soon after the earthquake

The director, Waad Al-Kateab (known for the Academy Award-nominated documentary For Sama), is of Syrian origin but was in London at the time of the disaster. She soon realized the importance of documenting the reality of the aftermath of this disaster, as she desperately tried to reach her family who were in Turkey at the time.

Al-Kateab contacted her friends who were in the disaster-struck zone at the time. She requested the cinematographer Fadi Al Halabi (known for the short The White Helmets) and humanitarian Fuad Sayed Issa (who founded the Syrian refugee-led humanitarian group Violet) to record any footage they could.

In a report by Deadline, Al-Kateab says:

“At that time, I was watching what Fuad was filming on his phone on Instagram… I know Hassan [Kattan], who is my producer on this film as well. He was there with him. Every time I was calling them, I was like, please film, please document. I know you’re not in this mood now, but [it will be important].”

The footage recorded contains devastating accounts of people trapped under rubble for days and entire cities reduced to nothing. In the same report from Deadline, Al-Kateab says:

“I’ve been through all this shelling and bombing, but the scene there was unbelievable....In one moment, we saw how the city [Antakya, Turkey] turned into something like five years of war in Aleppo. It was just so shocking.”

She continues:

“The UN did not react well, the Turkish government did not react well....People with [missing] loved ones, they were not treated with dignity. It was just awful.”

In Death Without Mercy, Al-Kateab also highlights the zoning violations across the affected areas caused by systemic failure and corruption, which also contributed to the massive toll taken by this disaster.

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Watch Death Without Mercy on Paramount+ from February 6 onwards.