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It may be set in 1943, but according to director and executive producer Shawn Levy, Netflix drama All the Light We Cannot See is unfortunately very "timely."
With the Nazi occupation of France as the backdrop, the adaption of Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel follows Marie-Laure LeBlanc—a blind French girl (played by blind actress Aria Mia Loberti) hiding out in her missing uncle's home—and Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann), a Nazi radio technician disillusioned with his role.
"The story and its themes are incredibly timely in ways that frankly I wish they weren't and did not expect," Levy told Newsweek, referencing the current Israel-Hamas conflict and the war in Ukraine.
"But I would hope that people would take [away] a story of two young people who manage to protect their humanity, even in regards to someone on the other side of the war — that they protect their humanity and their hope for a future in the midst of such darkness."
'We All Feel Surrounded by That Darkness Right Now'
On October 7, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel—the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history.
Israel subsequently fired its heaviest ever airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country is "at war." Supplies of food, fuel, electricity and medicine to Gaza have since been cut off, with Netanyahu pledging to "demolish" Hamas.
As of November 6, over 1,400 people have been killed in Israel—mostly in the initial October 7 attack by Hamas—the Associated Press reports. At least 9,700 have been killed in Gaza, with a further 32,000 wounded, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The war in Ukraine is also still ongoing. There were 27,449 civilians casualties in Ukraine between February 2022 and September 2023, with more than 9,700 people killed and over 17,000 injured, according to the United Nations.
"We all feel it, we all feel surrounded by that darkness right now with multiple wars raging in our world," Levy said.
However, the Stranger Things producer-director hopes that All the Light We Cannot See will help people to empathize with victims of war—regardless of which side of the conflict they're on or their country of origin, just like Marie and Werner.
"It's so easy to reduce an issue or another person to a black and white, good versus evil idea, but the truth is that people are not binary ideas," he said.
"We need to hold on to our better selves, our empathy, and our humanity, so that we can build beyond the moments of darkness in our world. So, I hope that this is a reminder of that for viewers."
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight—who wrote the scripts for All the Light We Cannot See—agrees.
"Werner is a German soldier, he's a radio operator who uses his skill to track down people and they're executed," he said. "That's what he is—but who he is is something different.
"If we're going to learn anything these days, we've got to stop asking what someone is, rather than who they are."
All the Light We Cannot See is now streaming on Netflix.
About the writer
Sophie is a Newsweek Pop Culture and Entertainment Reporter based in Lincoln, UK. Her focus is reporting on film and ... Read more