Let There Be Light

Un honorable drame de chambre sur une famille sympathique mais religieusement naïve dans un village slovaque. Remarquablement fragile et socialement intelligent du point de vue des relations familiales. Cependant, l'histoire n'est pas très marquante car elle traite d'événements ordinaires (selon les normes slovaques) et peu choquants. Excellente performance de Milan Ondrík dans le rôle principal. [3Kino Fest] (15/11/2020)

The Slovaks offered a movie which is an absolute, modern European drama with everything that it should have. It had a good family premise, took place in just the right kind of gloomy snow-covered countryside, and featured dense atmosphere and a camera which from time to time is at the top level. And it is not just a coincidence, Marko Škop already showed his capabilities in his debut Eva Nová. Moreover I have to say that Milan Ondrík is one of the top Slovakian actors and the others are almost at the same level as him. Let There Be Light was a great experience for me, as a high-quality drama, if perhaps a little unnecessarily cold. But still it was good enough to get under my skin. (09/10/2020)

The ambition to combine an intimate drama about a cold family with social commentary was too wide a dispersion and little emphasis on detail. The absent sound design or very fluctuating acting speak for themselves. It is, nevertheless, an important film that ends decently, as it leaves catharsis more or less up to the viewer. It is a pity that Škop is becoming more of a dramatizing director than a one who observes through a documentary. Thanks to this, Eva Nová was further and higher. (03/08/2019)

Marko Škop travaille bien avec les personnages et l'environnement du village, où tout le monde se connaît et ne tolère pas quand quelqu'un ne se tient pas à sa place. Ce drame parle de la nécessité de se confier et d'une famille confrontée à un dilemme moral lié à une tragédie qui perturbe la sérénité de Noël, ainsi qu'aux activités d'un groupe de jeunes formant une milice locale. Il aborde également les thèmes de l'homophobie, des relations père-fils et des ecclésiastiques malhonnêtes. Cependant, l'intrigue tardant à se mettre en place, le film se termine à un stade préliminaire, quand la chose adéquate est finalement faite pour mettre les choses en mouvement sans que cela ne soit capturé par le film (02/07/2019)

"He who walks with a clear conscience is not harmed by thunder!" +++ I couldn't have expressed the message of Let There Be Light any better, I'm just a bit worried whether this mantra is still valid in the current strange times we are living in. For more perceptive viewers, perhaps this film, which is brilliantly handled in every respect, provides an answer to such considerations. I would like to point out that Marko Škop as both a writer and director is starting to interest me more and more, as his feature debut Eva Nová was very good. (90%) (04/11/2020)