TV PICK OF THE WEEK
Based on the bestselling novel by Anthony Doerr, this handsomely filmed series is set in St Malo on the Brittany coast during the closing months of the Second World War.
The narrative moves back and forth in time, following ten years in the lives of two young people on opposing sides of the war. As the story opens, blind young Frenchwoman Marie-Laure (Aria Mia Loberti, in her debut role) is broadcasting from her apartment coded messages for the French Resistance, under the guise of reading passages from a Jules Verne novel. During her broadcasts she also appeals to her father to come home or at least somehow let her know that he is safe.
Meanwhile young German soldier Werner (Louis Hofmann), a radio operator recruited into the army as a teenager against his will for his extraordinary technical skills, is listening in. He is supposed to report any activity such as this to his superiors but he chooses not to as her messages offer him some hope for the future. His actions are putting himself in danger but he listens to his conscience. What links the two young people is that as children they both listened to radio broadcasts by a figure known only as “the professor” who imparted wisdom and information to curious youngsters.
In flashback, we learn that Werner grew up with his sister in an orphanage and he had no choice but to obey when Nazi officers whisked him away to an elite military training school. By contrast, Marie-Laure’s childhood in Paris with her loving museum curator father Daniel (Mark Ruffalo) has been marked by care and attention. Daniel has done everything possible to help his bright, intelligent daughter thrive in the sighted world. When the Nazis march into Paris, Daniel and Marie-Laure head to St Malo where they have family. What MarieLaure doesn’t know is that her father has secretly taken one of the precious stones he is responsible. The jewel is known as the
Sea of Flames and Nazi officer Reinhold von Rumpel (Lars Eidinger), for particular reasons of his own, is desperate to get hold of it.
Down in St Malo, they stay with Daniel’s uncle Etienne (a fine performance from Hugh Laurie as a traumatised First World War veteran) and soon discover he is working for the Resistance.