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The Natural History of Destruction
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The Natural History of Destruction
IDFA 2022

The Natural History of Destruction

Sergei Loznitsa
Germany, Netherlands
2022
110 min
Dutch Premiere
Festival history

A nighttime bombing raid filmed from the air lights up the explosions far below. A sea of lights, like a Jackson Pollock painting in negative. There’s a perverse beauty to the images of destruction at the heart of this documentary about aerial bombardment, created entirely using archive footage. Nevertheless, director Sergei Loznitsa never lets you forget the underlying devastation. The bombs mark the dividing line between a merciless “before” and “after.”

Loznitsa, who has repeatedly shown himself to be a master of archival documentary, describes The Natural History of Destruction as “his most symphonic film.” He follows in the footsteps of W.G. Sebald, whose collection of essays bearing the same title criticize the lack of attention for the civilian victims of the Allied mass bombings of German cities during the Second World War. But Loznitsa avoids ideology and chronology: images of Allied and German bombings are used interchangeably in this painfully topical work on the nature and absurdity of war.

Nominated for Beeld en Geluid IDFA ReFrame Award

Credits
Director
Production
    Regina Bouchehri for Looks Film & TV GmbH,
    Gunnar Dedio,
    Uljana Kim for Studio Uljana Kim,
    Sergei Loznitsa,
    Maria Choustova
Music
    Christiaan Verbeek
    Christiaan Verbeek
World Sales
    Progress Film-Verleih
    Progress Film-Verleih
Distribution for the Netherlands
    Cinema Delicatessen
    Cinema Delicatessen
Screening copy
    Atoms & Void
    Atoms & Void