All the Light We Cannot See

This four-part Netflix series is adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Anthony Doerr, the keynote speaker at the 2024 Festival of Faith and Writing at Calvin University. Against the backdrop of World War II in 1944, when Hitler’s defeat was nearing, four main characters’ lives intersect during the bombing of a German-occupied town in France.

Daniel LeBlanc (Mark Ruffalo), who works at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, taught his blind daughter Marie how to “see” the world and navigate their neighborhood independently. He even built a scale model for Marie’s fingers to “step out” into these surroundings. Since she was young, Marie began listening to a professor explaining science with great philosophical depth on her shortwave radio.

When the German occupation of Paris became a reality, Daniel took Marie and they fled to relatives, including the mysterious Uncle Etienne (Hugh Laurie) who lived in the seaside town of Saint-Malo. Upon leaving his museum job, Daniel took a legendary diamond called the Sea of Flames, an act of courage but also one that would bring even more danger to father and daughter.

Werner, an orphan in Germany, was also listening to the professor on the radio. Due to his extraordinary mechanical skills, gentle Werner was forced to train at a brutal Nazi training school. When Werner (Louis Hofmann) is later deployed to Saint-Malo to help German troops find radio transmission of the resistance, his life intersects with that of Marie’s.

Through many flashback moments of each character’s life, this complex narrative strikes deep chords about hope and human connections. As Etienne, the professor, always liked to say, “The most important light is the light you do not see.” Hope in a dark world can be intangible but persistent. The human longing for significance and hope in this broken world is due to God’s intention to restore and heal.

The title of this series alludes to theological meanings about “light.” St. Augustine, for example, often used light as a metaphor for God’s illumination of the human soul and the revelation of divine truth. Another World War II radio broadcaster, C.S. Lewis, also incorporated themes of light and darkness in his theological works. In this streaming series, the power of Marie’s inner light changed everyone around her, including her father, Uncle Etienne, and the German soldier Werner.

The director of this series intentionally sought a blind actress (Aria Mia Loberti) to portray the teenage Marie. Both actors who play Marie are legally blind, making this project the first one in its genre to cast blind actors in leading roles. The motif of inclusion and diversity in this show is also worth celebrating. (Rated TV-MA for violence, torture, and bullying. Netflix)