World War II · Series · 2023
All the Light We Cannot See
In the besieged port of Saint-Malo, a blind French girl broadcasting on a secret radio and a German radio operator who has listened to her for years move toward each other as the bombs fall.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 3 places.
Stop 1: Zollverein, Essen
In a mining-town orphanage, young Werner fixes a broken radio and falls under the spell of a French voice teaching science at night.
Stop 2: National Museum of Natural History, Paris
As the Germans approach, Marie-Laure's father leaves the museum with her and a precious secret, joining the flood of refugees.
Stop 3: Saint-Malo
Key location
Trapped in her great-uncle's tall house as the walled city burns, Marie-Laure keeps broadcasting while Werner hunts for the transmitter.
What really happened
The series adapts Anthony Doerr's 2014 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. In June 1940, as the Germans approached, millions of French civilians fled south in the exodus, and Paris fell on 14 June. Marie-Laure's father works at the National Museum of Natural History, whose collections were partly evacuated from the capital.
In August 1944 US troops of the 83rd Infantry Division besieged Saint-Malo, a German fortress on the Brittany coast. Artillery, air raids and fires destroyed most of the old walled city before the garrison of the citadel surrendered on 17 August. Marie-Laure, Werner and the cursed diamond are fictional, and the series gives Marie-Laure a larger role in the Resistance than the novel does.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- All the Light We Cannot See
- Created by
- Steven Knight
- Countries
- United States
- Languages
- English
- Seasons
- 1 season
- Released
- 2023
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Resistance
- Home front
