Review: Let There Be Light (2017)

Let There Be Light follows the global efforts of scientists and engineers to create a working nuclear fusion reactor. In particular, the film focuses on the organization ITER, an international venture that is currently building a type of reactor known as a tokamak in Southern France, which would become the world’s largest science experiment upon completion.

Although Let There Be Light is no advocacy documentary like An Inconvenient Truth and the other environmentally-minded documentaries that sprang up in the late 2000s, it still bears many of the same qualities as that film and others it spawned. In its opening moments, Michel Laberge, founder of General Fusion, says that human beings are like yeast, eating up all the resources until there’s nothing left but waste. For Laberge, and the other scientists that directors Mila Aung-Thwin and Van Royko document in Let There Be Light, the impulse to consume is the enemy and fusion is the tool capable of defeating it.

Let There Be Light is a survey of the various efforts to achieve fusion around the globe, from massive organizations like ITER to dogged individuals like Laberge. Much of the film is devoted to the various theories for achieving fusion, depicting historical episodes through charming animated sequences, or explaining complicated theories through clear diagrams and animations. The quick pace, vivid animations, and directors’ clear appreciation for the science does a lot to make up for the inherent dryness of the material. Like the similar Particle Fever from 2014, this documentary does a good job of conveying larger-than-life theories and personalities to laymen viewers.

Let There Be Light will hold your interest throughout if you have even a passing interest in science. The drawback is that it might be too early to tell this particular story. Unlike Particle Fever where the filmmakers chanced upon the discovery of the Higgs boson while filming, fusion research is not at a point of breakthrough. In a literal sense, the tokamak machine is not yet ready to turn on.

6 out of 10

Let There Be Light (2017, Canada/France/Italy/Switzerland/United States)

Directed by Mila Aung-Thwin and Van Royko.

This article was originally published at the now-defunct Toronto Film Scene.