Une lumière dans la nuit (2008)

This entertaining series, consists of 2 parts, tells about a blind young girl, Aurore Blin (Julie Voisin), who continues her late father's obsession: finding the relation between their ancestor Henri Blin and Louis Braille, the inventor of the system for the blind so that they can read and write. Every person who can help Aurore is soon to be dead and later she also finds that her father's death was not an accident.

The scenes of the past are wonderful. Set in 1825, Henri Blin (Marius Colucci) comes to Paris to the institute for the young blind people to teach music. There he befriends Louis Braille (Melchior Derouet) who tells him about his invention. The nightmare starts when both the French and English armies want the matrix, the original code for the blind writing, so that their soldiers can read in the dark without torches. As Braille doesn't want his invention to be used for war, he hides it. Knows that he is soon to be caught, he tells Blin the hiding place. Now it's Blin who is in danger, but thankfully he has Marie (Julie Delarme), a teacher in the institute, to help him.


The original idea for the story is marvelous and I enjoyed every bit of it. I don't understand, though, why the matrix is worth all the murders. For the armies, I can understand. Aurore says it is worth millions at Christie's. But for the brotherhood of Lux Aeterna, what is the important of the matrix for them? Brother Marie-Thomas wanted it so that the monks who had taken the oath of silence can communicate (Why not used pen & paper like everybody else? They were not blind.) - but is it worth the murders in the present time? The matrix since then had been hid by Henri Blin, yet the blind from all over the world can use the invention. Marie told the English army that only Thomas, brother of Henri Blin, survived after the massacre in the abbey - yet Henri didn't change his name and the spies never found out.

It's interesting to see how the blind use computer and internet.