Production :
Nederlands Filmfonds, LOOKSfilm, rbb and MDR
Plot synopsis
The film is inspired by W.G. Sebald’s text “Luftkrieg und Literatur”. Sebald describes the phenomenon of mass destruction of the German civilian population and German cities by massive Allied air raids during World War II. In particular, he examines the perception and processing of this phenomenon in European post-war literature.
https://looks.film/en/
European cities as seen from the boards of aircraft during carpet-bombing made a stunningly beautiful picture which was horrifying in a primeval manner. These images of hell, like never before, were planned by the engineers of war with scientific precision. To create the choreography of destruction, they employed the instruments of mathematics and physics. The director uses archive footage, unpublished so far, to express with series of hypnotic images what was written in prose by W.G. Sebald - the horror of those whose fate was never part of any equation.
The NATURAL HISTORY OF DESTRUCTION by Sergei Loznitsa will have its world premiere in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival (Special Screening) in May.
Inspired by W.G. Sebald’s book and based on WWII archive footage, the film puts forward the question: is it morally acceptable to use civilian population as a means of war? Is it possible to justify mass destruction for the sake of higher “moral” ideals? The question remains as relevant today, as it was 80 years ago, and its urgency is tragically manifested in the current events.
https://www.festival-cannes.com/.../the-films-of-the...
