Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s new documentary will have its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival tomorrow. The film is called The Natural History of Destruction and revolves around the bombing raids by Allied troops on the German population towards the end of World War II.
Loznitsa was also in Cannes last year for the premiere of his film Babi Yar. Context (2021), for which he won a special jury prize for best documentary. That film revolves around one of the largest mass executions in history in a canyon near Kyiv in 1941. The new film by the Ukrainian is again about the Second World War, but this time approaches the theme from a different side. Watch the trailer for The Natural History of Destruction below:
For his new documentary, Loznitsa was inspired by the book of the same name by the German writer WG Sebald. In his film he uses a lot of archive footage, with which he charts the strategic bombardments of the allied troops. Those attacks were designed to destroy Germany’s armies and weapons, but they also caused a lot of civilian casualties. The filmmaker then looks at how these events were later reflected on in literature and media.
The Natural History of Destruction will premiere tomorrow at the Cannes Film Festival. It is not yet known when the film will be shown in the Netherlands.
Image: Poster ‘The Natural History of Destruction’ via TMDb
