Paramount+ Sets Release Date For ‘Death Without Mercy’

Syrian director Waad Al-Kateab’s latest documentary, “Death Without Mercy,” will begin streaming on Paramount+ on Feb. 6.

The docu from MTV Documentary Film follows two Syrian families over ten days in the aftermath of the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the Turkish-Syrian border in 2023. The earthquake killed 55,000 people. The film is being released on Paramount+ on the second anniversary of the fatal event.

Al-Kateab – an activist and director of the 2020 Oscar-nominated doc “For Sama” – was not in Syria for the 2023 earthquake. After hearing about the tragedy while in London, the director immediately began reaching out to people on the ground, including her friends Fadi Al Halabi, a cinematographer on Oscar-winning short “The White Helmets,” and Fuad Sayed Issa, founder of Syrian refugee-led humanitarian group Violet.

“I told them to please, please, please film,” says Al-Kateab. “I kept telling them to please try to document as much as they could, but at that time, there was no film. For me, the priority was that that big of a tragedy should be documented.”

Shortly thereafter, Al-Kateab got a call from producer Sheila Nevins, who, at the time, was the head of MTV Documentary Film. This led “Death Without Mercy,” which premiered at the Sheffield DocFest last year, and weaves together intimate first-hand footage with TV news reports, social media, CCTV, drone shots, archive material, and master interviews.

The doc chronicles the two Syrian families as they search for their missing loved ones while also revealing the corruption, governmental negligence and systemic failures that exacerbated the disaster’s impact.

“Sheila was a major part of this film,” says Al-Kateab. “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…