Tom Tykwer opens the 75th Berlin International Film Festival with “The Light”

Tom Tykwer opens the 75th Berlin International Film Festival with Das Licht (The Light) on 13 February 2025, which will close on 22 February with the awards gala. The German-French production will be presented as a Berlinale Special Gala out of competition in the Berlinale Palast.

The Festival’s new director Tricia Tuttle presented the film chosen as the opening film in these terms: “We knew as soon as we saw Das Licht (The Light) that we wanted to have it open the 75th Berlinale. Tom Tykwer finds beauty and joy in our often fractured and challenging world, and magically captures the essence of our modern life on screen. It is our great pleasure to welcome Tom back to the Berlinale with Das Licht (The Light)”. It is not the first time that Tykwer, director of the iconic Run, Lola, Run (1998), which offered us a running tour through the streets of Berlin, has had the honor of opening the festival, as he did so in 2002 with his first international production, Heaven, co-written by Krzysztof Kieslowski and starring Cate Blanchett and Giovanni Ribisi. In addition, for the second time, it opened the 59th edition with The International (2009), starring Clive Owen and Naomi Watts, a thriller that began emblematically in the new Hauptbahnhof, designed by Meinhard von Gerkan and opened to the public in 2006. Not to mention that the city was nostalgically and faithfully captured in his Babylon Berlin series, shot in the Babelsberg studios.

The plot of Das Licht tells the story of the Engels family and stars Lars Eidinger (Dying, Babylon Berlin) and renowned actress and director Nicolette Krebitz. Tom (Eidinger), Milena (Krebitz), their twins Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer) and Jon (Julius Gause) and Milena’s son Dio (Elyas Eldridge) are a family who live more next door than together and nothing keeps them together until housekeeper Farrah (Tala Al-Deen) enters their lives. The mysterious woman from Syria puts the Engels’ world to an unexpected test and brings long-hidden feelings to light. In the process, she pursues a plan of her own that will radically change the family’s life.

Director and screenwriter Tom Tykwer depicts the everyday life of a middle-class German family in a fast-moving and unstable world. Despite being a regular, the director is happy about the involvement of the Berlinale in his life: ‘I’m delighted to open next year’s Berlinale with Das Licht (The Light). The Berlinale is the festival of my life. The city is my destiny. This film is my longing. So say the first images released of the film, which was produced by X Filme Creative Pool, in co-production with ZDF, ARP Séléction, Gold Rush Pictures, Gretchenfilm and B.A. Filmproduktion. The film will be released in German cinemas on 20 March 2025 by X Verleih and distributed by Warner Bros. Beta Cinema is handling worldwide sales.