In All the Light We Cannot See, Werner Pfennig is a young German soldier who risks his life to protect the girl who gives him hope when he is forced to fight in WWII. Louis Hofmann plays Werner.
In 1944, Werner Pfennig, a German soldier, is posted in Saint-Malo, France. He is a young radio operator whose job is to find the enemies who broadcast illegally and give their location to his superiors.
Every night, Werner hears a girl reading a book on the radio, but instead of reporting her, he protects her from the other German soldiers. He goes to extreme lengths to protect this girl, as she becomes a beacon of light for him.
Werner’s past
Werner and his sister grew up in an orphanage in Germany. When Werner was a child, he was recognized as a genius, as he learned to make a radio using the things that were discarded by others.
He used his homemade radio to listen to a French man’s program. The man was called the Professor, and Werner liked him so much because the man told children facts at a time when everyone else gave them their opinions.
Werner knew that it was forbidden to listen to foreign broadcasts, but he liked the Professor, whom he considered his father, too much to stop. Eventually, this brought an SS officer to the orphanage.
The SS officer witnessed Werner’s talent and decided to send him to the National Political Institute of Education in Berlin, where students were humiliated and beaten up every day. Werner suffered a lot there, but he did not give up.
He graduated at top of his class, and when his teachers discovered just how good he was with a radio, they sent him to the front, even though he was too young for that. Werner had no choice but to serve his country.
Protecting his hope
Werner is a soldier, but not by choice. He helps locate several transceivers and is responsible for the deaths of several people who were caught by the Germans. He still listens to shortwave 13.10, the frequency used by the Professor.
When he comes to Saint-Malo, he hears a girl, Marie, reading a book on shortwave 13.10. Werner does not know her, but it is clear that she also listened to the Professor and is now trying to talk reason and literature to people, just like the Professor used to do.
The Professor was Werner’s refuge and hope, and now it is Marie, so Werner tries to protect her. His commanding officer gets suspicious of him, as he is working alone because his company is dead. The officer decides to make him work under another soldier, Schmidt.
However, Werner kills Schmidt when he discovers Werner’s secret, which confirms his commanding officer’s suspicions. Werner is then threatened by his commanding officer and forced to lead the soldiers to Marie. If Werner refuses to follow orders, his sister will be killed.
Werner takes them to Marie’s house, but when Etienne arrives there, Werner kills his commanding officer to save Marie’s life. Etienne then takes Werner to the place where the Resistance is hiding to question him.
Werner figures out that Etienne is the Professor and tells him how he was taken from his orphanage to fight in the war. Etienne trusts Werner, so he does not let the Resistance kill him. Soon, a bomb kills Etienne, but Werner survives.
Before dying, Etienne sends Werner to protect Marie. Werner helps Marie fight Reinhold von Rumpel, and the two of them kill him. Werner finally meets the girl who has been helping him escape this nightmare and talks to her about their shared love of the Professor’s lessons.
After spending some time with Marie, Werner has to surrender to the Americans when they come to free Saint-Malo, but he promises to listen to Marie on the radio. If Marie wants him with her, he will come to her once the war is over.
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