Pulitzer Prize Winner All the Light We Cannot See Is Netflix’s New Addition
Pulitzer Prize-winning book All the Light We Cannot See has officially been adapted into a miniseries and dropped on Netflix.
Written and directed by Shawn Levy, the series takes place during WWII, centering around a blind French teenager, Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Loberti), and a new Nazi recruit, Werner Pfennig (Louis Hofmann). It flips back and forth between LeBlanc and Pfennig’s lives and childhoods. The drama was originally written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr.
I am rereading All The Light We Cannot See before the show premieres. I read the book version soon after it was released 2014 or 2015. Doing audiobook for reread and my memory of it was not as good as I thought lol
— Jerrica Tisdale (@jtwritergirl) October 28, 2023
The series’ main objective was to accurately represent the blind and low-vision community. Levy wanted authenticity and a proper representation of the community. Thus, he believed Aria Mia Loberti was perfect for the role despite never having an acting job. “That’s a massive element. Honestly, Aria’s newness to acting was maybe a more radical fact of our shoot than Aria’s legal blindness. We were teaching her every day, but certainly every day, Aria was teaching me,” Levy shared with The Los Angeles Times.
just finished another show starring my love Louis Hofmann
— na (@qileena) November 2, 2023
All the light we cannot see: 3/5
tbvh there are lots of silly plot holes which idk already existed in the book or just surface now that they turn the book to a show pic.twitter.com/NU4Zx0qiyp
In addition to Loberti, associate producer Joe Strechay is also blind. He contributed to making the drama a success. Strechay and Levy grew very close during the production of the series while filming in France and Hungary. Strechay became legally blind at age 19 and fell in love with the film industry. He first started his work with directors and writers by giving feedback on the language used by a blind character. Now he is a blindness and accessibility consultant.
Despite the brilliant adaptation of the book, Levy still had his doubts. “The story is so sweeping, and it’s an interesting combination of intimate storytelling and epic backdrop. I had a feeling that two hours was never going to service such a beautiful, dense novel.” Levy told Vanity Fair. Tough cuts did have to be made during the production of the show, but fans will just have to watch and see how the story ends.
All the Light We Cannot See is available to stream on Netflix. Check out the trailer below.
