ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE Reveals ‘Light Always Wins’

Published: November 3, 2023

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE Reveals ‘Light Always Wins’

By Movieguide® Contributor

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE’s crew recently shared the creative process behind adapting the book, why they didn’t want to replace the source material and how the story speaks to world events today.

“It’s so well written, it’s so beautiful it’s so big that pretty much only a fool would want to adapt it,” writer and executive producer Steven Knight told Movieguide® of the book the miniseries is based on. “I wanted to do was to try to do justice to the book without ever suggesting it’s a replacement for the to the book or a diversion from the book. The book is still there, but this is another way of enjoying that brilliant piece of imagination.”

“The book is the mountain,” director Shawn Levy told Deadline. “The mountain will always exist. Long after us, the mountain will be here. We did a painting of that mountain. It’s our impression of that mountain.”

Levy had been working for years to secure the rights to the novel of the same name, written by Anthony Doerr. When it finally came time for him to make the series, the director put his all into it, from shooting on location in Saint-Malo to casting a blind actress to play lead Marie-Laure.

“It gave a grounded [feeling]. Again, it comes back to that word that was dominant for me on this project — authenticity,” he explained. “Wherever I can give my actors the real thing, I know it makes the performances better.”

Movieguide® reported:

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE is a four-part limited series on Netflix, set in World War II. tells the story of a blind French girl named Marie-Laure and her father, Daniel LeBlanc, who flee the National Socialist Germans occupying Paris. They are carrying a famous diamond that supposedly will give the owner eternal life but maim or murder all the owner’s loved ones. Daniel doesn’t believe the curse, but he doesn’t want the Nazis to get the diamond. A Nazi officer Reinhold von Rumpel, who’s also a jeweler, is obsessed with finding the blind girl and getting the diamond.”

Levy also spoke about the importance of ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE’s story, especially at this point in time.

“There’s times in history and in the present, whether it’s global events or personal tragedy, where you just feel kind of lost in darkness and hopeless in the midst of darkness,” Levy continued. “But this story is really about the belief that that light does exist, will exist again and that we need to protect that place inside of us even if the world is breaking our heart.”

Knight added, “There’s a great line in the book where the professor says, “Darkness can last a thousand years, and then you turn on a light, and it’s gone like that within a millionth of a second.’ You can’t switch on darkness. You can switch on light, and light always wins, and I think that is such a fundamental part of what the message of the book is and hopefully what the message of what we’ve made.”

Tragedies and wars continue. Knight told The Hollywood Reporter, “The fact that these things still happen, this darkness is still out there, people still covet each other’s countries and their own invasions, and all these things just makes the actual fundamental message of the book more important.”

He continued, “What Anthony’s book suggests is that there is light, that there is hope, that two individuals from opposite sides, Marie and Werner, meet and peace breaks out for an hour and they dance to some music. That’s what’s beautiful about the book, and hopefully about the series.”

Check out Movieguide®’s full interview with Levy and Knight below:

A portion of the Movieguide® review reads:

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE is riveting and well stocked with intense jeopardy. Each episode ends with a cliffhanger. The dialogue is also magnificent as is the acting, the sets, the costumes, and the direction. Some flashbacks are sometimes disorienting, however. ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE is an extremely exciting, morally affirming, heroic miniseries. It’s a powerful testimony of good triumphing over evil with strong Christian references, but it has some strong foul language and violence. MOVIEGUDIE® advises extreme caution.