BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Am Anfang war das Licht" or "In the Beginning There Was Light" is an Austrian 90-minute documentary from 2010, so this one is already over half a decade old. Writer and director is P.A. Straubinger and this one here is easily his most known work, which also has to do with the fact that he is far from prolific. Anyway, with this film here he gives an insight into the subject of some people living without food, maybe even without drinking and solely living off light. Or I should add "allegedly" because in my opinion this is all a huge scam. And actually it would be better not to provide the likes of Jasmuheen with further attention, so they can get even richer and sell more books etc. And they can also not bait people into killing themselves because they believed in the concept like that lady in the woods. In Germany, we have a proverb saying "von Luft und Liebe leben" and that's what the people in this documentary do, but not just metaphorically like in the proverb. So yeah I am very skeptical and I don't believe in the concept, no matter how many years of meditation may have preceded it. If it is really true then why won't they put these people for 10 days under permanent surveillance and see if they are not secretly having a meal? This would be the evidence then and then it also makes sense to run blood tests etc. to explore this unique phenomenon. But not before really scrutinizing them. So yeah, overall I give this documentary a thumbs-down, not because it was handled badly (on the contrary, for a first film it was pretty solid, far from a failure really), but I find the concept pretty revolting and not deserving of the attention. Another weakness is that it got too scientific in the second half. All in all, I give it a thumbs-down. If you still want to see these 1.5 hours, make sure you got a good set of subtitles as with all the languages included in here, it seems unlikely you really understand everything else otherwise.

Erika Vollenweider After watching the film I still do not know whether there are really people who are able to live without food and fluids over long periods of time. Nevertheless it leaves the possibilities open and the underlying research seems to be done very well - If you will look deeper into the topic and not only at wikipedia etc. The film does not give definitive answers but shows highly interesting research and raises a lot of questions. Actually I think "In the beginning there was light" deals only on the surface with the phenomenon of breatharianism. It really questions the prevailing materialistic philosophy in our western culture and opens up new perspectives. In my opinion one of the most thought-provoking and inspiring films ever made...

H R The movie does start out critically. They cite studies and interview the participants. The fact that some of those studies weren't published and/or taken seriously makes them conclude: conspiracy! From there on the documentary takes a turn right into complete insanity: Prana, Chakras, Quantum-Healing and similar ideas are all of a sudden accepted as working practices without further investigation. If this movie were a joke it would be funny, but for something that calls itself a documentary it is simply an affront.p.s. stating light nourishment would work when we have around one billion starving people on the planet is a bit twisted, so maybe i'm getting it all wrong and it is a masterpiece of black humor.

Syrtah The quote at the end of the movie ("Mindblowing if you excuse me") describes it best: This film is a wonderful documentary with a lot of scientists talking but not lecturing. Despite whatever you might think about the people shown who claim not to eat or drink in years, the film takes you on a very pleasant and comfortable journey into the areas of life where science has to admit phenomena without being able to explain them. And further. And further into your own imagination of what might be possible in this world and what not.The director admits that the ending is a bit one-sided but well, it's his opinion on the whole subject and you're free to follow or not.The most important fact for me was the stunning camera-work, the very clever editing and a wise choice in the references/people which appeared in the film.