Historic East German Distributor Progress Film Relaunches, Acquires Sergei Loznitsa’s Cannes Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias Progress Film, the historic distributor established in 1950 to handle the release of films produced by communist East Germany’s state-owned film studio, has announced plans to relaunch theatrical distribution and international sales.The company has also acquired Sergei Loznitsa’s “The Natural History of Destruction,” which will have its world premiere as a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival.

Progress is handling world sales as well as distribution in Germany, where it’s planning a theatrical release.Based on WWII archive footage, “The Natural History of Destruction” puts forward the questions: Is it morally acceptable to use civilian populations as a means of war, and is it possible to justify mass destruction for the sake of higher “moral” ideals?

Those questions remain as relevant today as they were 80 years ago, becoming ever more urgent amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.

Progress Film was founded in East Berlin in 1950 and was the only distributor in East Germany until the fall of the Berlin Wall, making it one of the biggest European film distributors of the 20th century.