“Babylon Berlin” all well and good, but Tom Tykwer belongs to the cinema! After nine-year-old screen abstinence, the director of “Lola runs”, “Das Perfüm” and “Cloud Atlas” used the long break between seasons 4 and 5 of his series world hit to finally turn a movie again. But don't worry, the Berlinale opening film “The light“Is anything but a quickly showered side project, on the contrary. It feels more like the culmination of an already big and in the eyes of many great careers.
In an epic 162 minutes, Tom Tykwer negotiates nothing less than the condition of our world-musical performances, VR stopper, catastrophic scenes and a very central queen song included using the example of a dysfunctional family and her housekeeper fled from Syria. Even if there might have been less in some places, it is almost a natural filmmaking – and not only because it really pours in the film in Berlin in really every scene. It all started with a single little thought.
The Engels family is in the rain again, after all, it really pours in “The Light” as if the next deluge is pending.
The Engels' spouses want to save the world: that's why Tim (Lars Eidinger) runs everywhere by bike and works in a hip Berlin-Mitte agency that gives large companies a sustainable coat of paint. And that's why Milena (Nicolette Krebitz) implements funding projects in Kenya, in which young people try to overcome their trauma with theater games. At the same time, her own family breaks apart: While her e-athlete son Jon (Julius Gause) is lost in the VR world of his favorite game, his activist twin sister Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer) celebrates her sleepless weekends in electro clubs.
And the dio (Elyas Eldridge) from an affair from Milena with a Kenyan engineer is pushed back and forth week after week without really feeling at home somewhere. But then the family's housekeeper dies of a heart attack – and is lying around in the kitchen for a while. As a replacement, the Farrah (Tala al-Deen) fled from Syria takes up the place, which gradually breaks out the deep trenches between the family members. For this purpose, u. A mysterious flashing light, the special effect of which will soon experience the members of the Engels family …
Make a mammoth plant out of a mouse
In the end there was nothing bad. But when his housekeeper did not appear and was not available one day, the filmmaker was not only worried, it also became clear to him that he knew almost nothing about his long -time employee. Actually a suitable occasion for a nice little (problem) film that (again) the First World Problems open to the western world. You know (for enough). But puff cake! Tom Tykwer does not make an elephant out of a mouse, but an (over-) ambitious mammoth work, in which he directly tackles the whole major topics of modernity from climate change to alienation and refugee questions. He probably does not rely only because he is also consistently in full in the chosen cinematic means.
Despite the proud runtime of more than two and a half hours, most of the time is on the right pressure, which, in addition to “Tron”-like VR sets and a Marvel-compatible flight sequence, over the Spree in a series of musical performances on the Roads of Berlin unloads. “Bohemian Rhapsody” from the band Queen takes on a central position. Tykwer and his co-producers had to be patient for months in order to get the (certainly not quite cheap) rights to the iconic rock song. But without him the film would certainly not have become the same – and it also fits: Where Freddie Mercury once Ballad, Opera and Hardrock connected to an equally pathetic and parodist metaphor about guilt, atonement and redemption, Tykwer now also uses a wide variety of, only apparently Contradictory stylistic means for a large count full of mysterious symbolism.
Farrah (Tala al-Deen) uses a mysterious light to help people around them. But may she also pursue her own interests with her therapy?
“”Nothing Really Matters“(” Nothing is really important “) is known to be the conclusion drawn in the thoughtful Coda of” Bohemian Rhapsody “. But that is exactly what is certainly not the case here: Tykwer does not just throw around it with symbols, instead there is a twist, which explains the vast majority, including the aggressively shallow constant rain. But the mere plot or mysterious light are not the things that you will still think about after rolling the credits, “The Light” delivers far too many other exciting discussion. Also, not everyone of these large ideas fits seamlessly into the overall picture, some sequences look more like visual ideas. But “more megalomania!” Seems, especially in the often well -behaved German cinema as a motto worth striving.
Conclusion: In the nine (!) Years since his last movie, Tom Tykwer has obviously accumulated something that is now pushing into the screen in “The Light” with a whole concentrated force. The result is so bold, daredevil and thematically and cinematic all -encompassing that you can argue wonderfully afterwards whether everyone really works 100 percent – but that's precisely why “the light” is so exciting, stimulating, pure cinema!
We saw “Das Licht” as part of the Berlinale 2025, where it was shown as an opening film.
PS: In order to oppose the “prejudice of the lame German film”, which is repeatedly raised, the film start editorial team decided to do so, The initiative “German cinema is (but) horny!” To start: Every month we choose a German film that we particularly liked, inspired or fascinated to accompany the theatrical release- regardless of its size- editorially like a blockbuster (i.e. with a majority of articles, our own podcast- Episode and so on). “The Light” is the latest film that we give this seal.