Das Licht review: Tala Al Deen's shining performance lifts Tom Tykwer's Berlinale opener

While the story of a Syrian immigrant who heals a German family is patronising at times, Al Deen's acting keeps the film afloat

Das Licht (The Light) features Tala Al Deen as a Syrian housekeeper who has recently arrived in Germany. Photo: X Verleih AG

“We are a typical dysfunctional German family,” announces Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer), the tattooed, pierced 17-year-old girl in Tom Tykwer’s ambitious new film, Das Licht (The Light). The opening night movie for this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, this is a fine choice as a curtain-raiser by incoming artistic director Tricia Tuttle, not least because it’s largely set in a rain-soaked Berlin. As Tuttle recently told Variety: “Filmmakers are noting that we live in a crazy, divisive world” – words that seem to entirely sum up The Light.

Tykwer, who writes and directs here, has never shied away from experimentation – think of Run Lola Run (1998), which never breaks sweat as Franka Potente sprints to save her boyfriend, or his collaboration with the Wachowskis, adapting the dystopian Cloud Atlas (2012). The Light comes at you like a locomotive in its early scenes, as the members of the Berlin-based Engels family go about their business. Frieda is out clubbing with her friends, taking illegal substances, while her twin brother Jon (Julius Gause) is in his bedroom, his VR goggles strapped on as he immerses himself into a sci-fi game called Transportal.

Meanwhile, their parents are going through issues. Mother Milena (Nicolette Krebitz) works in government, driving an initiative to fund a community theatre project in Kenya. Father Tim (Lars Eidinger) works for an activist group whose latest campaign – titled #Us – is about showing that the problems with the world are not caused by others, but ourselves. Milena also has a little boy, Dio (Elyas Eldridge), from a (presumably brief) affair with a Kenyan named Godfrey (Toby Onwumere), who now lives in Berlin and is forever on their doorstep, looking timid. Milena and Tim are in couples therapy with the hope that they’ll save their disjointed marriage.

Das Licht is the latest film from Tykwer, who also helmed Run Lola Run and Cloud Atlas. Photo: X Verleih AG

Rarely, it seems, does the family ever spend any time together. But when their maid dies while cleaning their apartment – the crescendo of the film’s brilliant opening salvo – it leads to another coming into their lives. Farrah (Tala Al Deen) is a Syrian immigrant, a medical practitioner back in Aleppo who now must work as a housekeeper to make ends meet.

Farrah is first glimpsed in her apartment, facing a high-intensity LED lamp, which flashes bright lights into her face. Called the Lucia Lamp, it was developed in Austria by a psychotherapist and a neurologist as a form of therapy and Farrah is using it to overcome considerable trauma in her own life. What does she want with the Engels family? That only becomes clear in the operatic – and overblown – conclusion. But the idea that an Arabic-speaking woman comes to heal this western family feels patronising.

If that isn’t enough, Tykwer’s film also dabbles in VR – there is a remarkable scene where Jon and the girl he met online encounter each other in real life, then swirl about the streets like their avatars do in the nether regions of their shared Transportal game. And then, to top it all, the director goes full musical, with several song-and-dance sequences – from a gym workout number fronted by Eidinger to an airing of Queen’s seminal song Bohemian Rhapsody. Mamma mia, indeed.

With strong performances, especially from Al Deen, who brings dignity to her character – credit Tykwer for going out on a limb here – the film offers up a bold look at the chaos of 21st century living. A film about dysfunction – whether it’s in the home or a group like the United Nations, it’s a work that stumbles as much as it strides. But it’s a provocative and political piece, designed to make you look at the world in a way you haven’t before.

Das Licht premieres on Thursday at the Berlin International Film Festival