Educational Media Reviews Online

Light Upon Light is an interesting film that addresses the subject of spiritual light. It follows Christian Suhr, the filmmaker, on a Middle Eastern road trip as he is challenged by a friend to create a film about light. Suhr accepts the challenge and travels through Sufi Islam areas of the Middle East, especially Egypt, where he films religious festivals, conversations, and philosophically discusses spiritual light with his friend. The intersectionality of light as a topic of interest for Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Philosophy is evident throughout the film. All of these fields address light in many sections of their literature and in a similar way. Light Upon Light clearly shows that light is a metaphor for Allah and Muhammad in Sufi Islam, much like Jesus and God are equated with light in Christianity and Judaism. Light is also equated with knowledge in philosophy and Light Upon Light shows Sufi practitioners using light in this same way in this film. Although the film is predominantly about Sufi Islam these other fields interested in light make condensed appearances. In an experimental film format, Suhr attempts to capture the essence of spiritual light through the video techniques, backgrounds, and settings he portrays while allowing the participants to show their response to the spiritual light they are experiencing through their words, actions, and interactions with others. Given the complexity of this topic and the inexplicable nature of light Suhr does better than just an adequate job of meeting his objective.

Compared to an earlier film by Suhr, Descending With Angels, Light Upon Light shows improvement and better meets its goals. The videography is good, and the sound quality is clear. Although some parts are in Arabic, the subtitling is clear and easy to read. Although this film was originally released in Arabic, the English version is well done and remains faithful to the original.

Light Upon Light is rated recommended. It succeeds in its stated goals. It is appropriate for college and adult audiences from a broad array of fields and backgrounds who would find this film interesting and thought-provoking. The intersectionality between the Abrahamic religions and philosophy provoked by this film’s attempt to visualize the idea of spiritual light using Sufi Islam as the stage leads to many options for the use of this film in the college classroom and discussion groups in many places, including churches of all beliefs and philosophical and academic circles. This is a good film for any public or college-level academic library to include in its collection.

Awards:
Special mention at Jean Rouch International Film Festival

Published and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Anyone can use these reviews, so long as they comply with the terms of the license.