Cannes Film Festival, born out of war, grapples with Ukraine

THE war in Ukraine took a starring role on the opening night of the 75th Cannes Film Festival and it has rarely been far out of frame since.

The parties have continued nonstop, as has the red-carpet frenzy. But throughout the French Riviera spectacular has run a discourse about the role of cinema in wartime. Movie screens have lit up with footage from the front lines and films with trenchant meaning in relationship to the conflict.

Sergei Loznitsa, one of Ukraine’s most acclaimed filmmakers, was putting the finishing touches on his documentary “The Natural History of Destruction” when Russian invaded Ukraine in February. The film, which premiered Monday in Cannes, uses extensive archival footage to depict the Allied bombing campaign of Germany during World War II.

The question at the heart of the film, inspired by W.G. Sebald’s 1999 book of the same name, is about the morality of targeting civilian populations in times