It was a quiet early 2024 November evening in Thessaloniki, Greece and I was holed up writing reviews for films I had watched at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. Thessaloniki has survived many aftershocks but in 1978 the city suffered aftershocks from a 6.5 Richter scale earthquake killing an estimated 49 people. Greece is no stranger to earthquakes.
My chair began to wobble a bit thinking I had caused the jiggle but it was far too solid and I steadily rocked to and fro for what seemed like 7 seconds or so I thought. In these moments you lose your sense of time. There was no fear but an apprehension I could be crushed under a pile of concrete and there was nothing I could do about it. Helpless, minute and very fragile. There was no additional aftershock to follow to this 5.2 quake with an epicentre off the coast.
I rose from my chair having to hold onto the wall like I had been on a ship for a couple of days. Then a few minutes later I started to shake. Shock I suppose. Elsewhere with family relatives they had told me they had three more violent aftershocks.
As minor this incident was I would venture to say when I hear there has been an earthquake I tense up and relive my experience. No, not PTSD. I believe a morose feeling of compassion has set in which is deeper and perhaps more intense than sympathy.
I watched “Death Without Mercy” a documentary about the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that in 2023 struck adjacent parts of Turkey and Syria killing an estimated 60,000 souls.
If you are afraid of a trip to hell on earth, please do not watch nor if you are bashful about crying when watching raw CCTV, phone camera footage and professionally shot footage.
Exhibiting the destructive and deadly power of this earthquake and its grisly and sickening aftermath. I had 43 adjectives noted describing my emotions watching “Death Without Mercy” and at points anger why this dreadful 10 days were filmed and the corrupt, inadequate, inept, greedy and a failure of the Turkish government and the “building industry” to prevent this tragedy.
What is the result of this tragedy? A few arrests. An investigation omitting the Turkish government? A great many in the construction community including those in a shoddy Turkish bureaucracy should have been held accountable.
The filmmakers have made their point and safeguarded much of the dignity of the victims and he living. As for me I hope it moves you from sympathy to compassion for human suffering noting compassion can be unpleasant if not painful.
I will not rate this film. How can you rate a trip to hell.
You may watch the trailer here and it underrepresents the obscene violence you will watch in the documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLdwFuBwG74
Directed by Waad Al-Kateab.
It will be broadcast on 6February2025 on Paramount+ With Showtime, the second anniversary of the earthquake.
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