Family and business go together in messy ways in ROUGH DIAMONDS, a Netflix original series. Courtesy of Netflix.Family. Blood ties. Scandal. Forbidden love. Diamonds. The High Holy Days. Everything you could ever want in a riveting thriller lies in ROUGH DIAMONDS, Netflix’s Belgian, VERY Jewish series that premiered last April. It took me a while to finally sit down and watch this eight-episode family drama set in the pretty but dangerous world of Antwerp’s Diamond Square Mile. I hadn’t watched the show because, well, it really hasn’t been promoted that much, at least to my knowledge. I usually hear about the latest Jewish Netflix shows from either Hey Alma, scrolling through the digital platform on a lazy Friday night, or…. well, Hey Alma! (If you haven’t already, definitely subscribe to that publication. It’s too good.) Perhaps I subconsciously avoided ROUGH DIAMONDS because I have never been a fan of “heist dramas,” if that’s even a name for this type of genre. I confess that the diamond business just scares me alone. I have maybe seen too many James Bond movies or similar thrillers, but if I put “diamond” and “business” together in a sentence, I can’t imagine a happy ending. Something will go wrong. Some scandal will occur, followed by murder.
Created by Rotem Shamir and Yuval Yefet, the former of which has directed many episodes of Fauda and directs four on this show, ROUGH DIAMONDS surprised me in so many ways. First of all, it’s not an action thriller with car chases and shootouts between tough-looking men with bazookas and “baddies” stealing diamonds in a crowded European city. Just judging from the poster, the setup of episode one, and the general synopsis, I expected an action-packed thriller in the guise of Fauda, another “Jewish popcorn flick” to add to the ever-growing list of Jewish shows on Netflix. Instead, ROUGH DIAMONDS is a deeply perceptive show about one thing only: family.
Families are… yeah. Lovable? Messy? Powerful? That group of people we sometimes need to get away from but yearn for at the same time? Such is the conundrum with Noah (Kevin Janssens), a former member of his ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in the historic Antwerp. One of four, Noah, a handsome, formidable-looking tough guy, left his religion – went off the derech, as they say – to start life anew in London where he met his wife and had a beautiful son, Tommy (Casper Knopf). After his wife’s death, Noah keeps his son out of his family but is unable to stop him from seeing his wife’s mother, Kerra (Tine Joustra). What’s wrong with Kerra? She’s a crime lord! Oy vey. You know it’s not a good sign when you first meet a character doing shady business with drugs or diamonds in some underground location.
Noah ends up returning to his family after the tragic passing of his younger brother, Yanki (Vincent Van Sande). In a gripping opening sequence, Yanki leaves behind his wife, Gila (Marie Vinck), in bed in the early hours, races to his job and commits suicide. The reason why is implied to be financial, something about not paying in time. As we very quickly see, Noah’s family are actually owners of the Wolfson Diamonds district of Antwerp. What stunned me was reading about Antwerp’s diamond district and how overwhelmingly Jewish these businesses are. These organizations have been prodigious for centuries. When World War II hit, many Jewish owners fled to avoid deportation. After Hitler’s defeat, the mayor of Antwerp encouraged all Jews, including survivors of the Shoah, to return to their businesses. It’s now 2023, and the district’s number of Jewish diamond business owners has perpetually expanded.
This is like a secret world I didn’t even know existed. I am proud, however, that ROUGH DIAMONDS is just a fictionalized depiction of this business and things aren’t really as scary in this city. (I hope!) Upon returning, Noah reunites with his siblings, Adina (Ini Massez) and Eli (Robbie Cleiren). Adina is sweet and protective of her non-Jewish, British-speaking nephew, while Eli and Noah’s strict father, Ezra (Dudu Fisher), can barely look at him, let alone Noah. He left the family, and his willingness to fix whatever Yanki messed up with the company is still not appreciated.
Noah’s history with why he went off the derech is not totally explained in ROUGH DIAMONDS because, like other former members of the community, sometimes there isn’t an explanation. Perhaps the community was just too strict for him. Perhaps Noah lost his way with his Judaism and wanted to try something new, despite the consequences of forever leaving his family. We also learn that Noah and Gila used to be lovers before she married his brother, but he couldn’t marry her because he didn’t want to be Jewish anymore. Gila herself occasionally doubts her customs, sneakily taking kids to the movies and maybe taking off her sheitel (wig) in situations where she knows she’s not supposed to. Even though her husband just tragically took his own life, she is already being set up on dates for husband #2.
Throughout the series, there is a strange and compelling display of confusion amongst all the characters. I’ll admit that I was a little befuddled with the business plot of the show. There is something to do with the Albanian mafia, family debts, and a tenacious police officer, Jo (Els Dottermans), investigating a potential link between the Albanians and Wolfson Diamonds. (And let’s not forget Noah’s devious mother-in-law with a few tricks up her sleeve.) To me, none of that interested me as much as the brilliant performances of the cast and the way they convey their characters’ distressed, oftentimes painful emotional states. The almost Machiavellian conflict of ROUGH DIAMONDS is tough to hear in that everybody has a problem and fixing it will only create consequences. There is no escape. These people’s fates are sealed. For the rest of his life, Noah knows that he won’t escape his family because he has nothing else left. Helping his family’s business, while also trying to start a new romance with Gila and manage to raise a son alone with his mother-in-law, can’t end well. Just like his brother, Yanki, the clock will only tick for so long until tragedy strikes.
The cinematography of ROUGH DIAMONDS by Danny Elsen and Moshe Mishali further demonstrates the inner conflict of these characters, with mirror shots and reflections being a prominent motif of the show. In business meetings with sellers, the two very conspicuously show the characters’ reflections on the porcelain tables. There is another brilliant shot in an episode where Noah awaits a dangerous figure at the train station, his presence reflecting off the fast-moving side of the train. One thing I learned in film school was the way you can use the camera as a tool to mirror character emotions. Elsen and Mishali understand the message of this show, and the way they visualize this is nothing short of sublime.
ROUGH DIAMONDS may not be a new classic of Jewish television, but its story is undoubtedly impactful. Watching this show, you may find yourself questioning who you’re rooting for or whether certain decisions made are the right ones. Families can be messy, and mixing business with them can only exacerbate matters.
*PLEASE NOTE: this trailer is dubbed in English.
ROUGH DIAMONDS is now available to stream on Netflix.