LUFTKRIEGE review by Brenda Benthien
LUFTKRIEG : DIE NATURGESCHICHTE DER ZERSTÖRUNG ( THE NATURAL HISTORY OF DESTRUCTION ) ****
GERMANY | NETHERLANDS | LITHUANIA 2022 DIRECTED BY : SERGEY LOZNITSA WRITING CREDITS : W . G . SEBALD
GENRE : DOCUMENTARY OPENED MARCH 16 , 2023
Based on the 1999 book Luftkrieg und Literatur by German writer W . G . Sebald , The Natural History of Destruction is an extraordinarily harrowing work that bears cultural witness to the Allied carpet bombing of German cities during World War II . To this day , the horrific suffering of large portions of the population has remained largely unexplored in the public mind . Author Sebald described the reason : “ There was a tacit agreement , equally binding on everyone , that the true state of material and moral ruin in which the country found itself was not to be described . The darkest aspects of the final act of destruction , as experienced by the great majority of the German population , remained under a kind of taboo like a shameful family secret … that perhaps could not even be privately acknowledged .”
Ukrainian filmmaker Sergey Loznitsa visualizes Sebald ’ s ideas in this astonishing experimental documentary . Reinvented “ ambient ” sound ( kudos to sound designer Vladimir Golovnitski ) accompanies archival footage of regular people going about their daily lives : engaging in peaceful pre-war activities , manufacturing weapons , dropping bombs , and suffering unspeakable horrors as their cities are annihilated . Dedicated munitions workers in Britain and Germany use precisely engineered technology to shape devastating weapons of mass destruction . Flak and tracers form lovely spirals in the sky as bombers drop them on the population below .
Once the aerial bombing of civilians has stopped and the war is over , Göring , Churchill , and King George VI can variously be seen visiting the ruins . Meanwhile , the populace search for loved ones among long lines of bodies laid out on the sidewalks , handkerchiefs pressed to their mouths against the stench . Barefoot survivors leave the bombed-out cities , pulling makeshift carts across cobblestones and holding their few remaining possessions . Trummerfrauen get to work , clearing rubble in the aftermath . There is striking footage of Hamburg ’ s Landungsbrücken and main train station .
The Natural History of Destruction is a fierce protest against the deception and moral evasiveness of our time . The film , which premiered at Cannes in 2022 , takes on a new dimension today in view of the political urgency of its subject . How is it possible that killing other people is still seen as a universal means of reaching political or economic goals ? The film makes the absurdity of mass extermination excruciatingly clear – and once seen , such destruction can never remain unseen . 112 minutes
68 HAMBURG HAPPENINGS