QUEEN OF DIAMONDS by NINA MENKES

QUEEN OF DIAMONDS by NINA MENKES
 
August 09, 2019
 
 

 
 
Critically acclaimed for her radical feminist body of work, Nina Menkes’ Queen of Diamonds (Sundance ’91) is the third title in a quartet of films (alongside The Great Sadness of Zohara, 1983, Magdalena Viraga, 1986 and The Bloody Child, 1996), that Menkes produced, wrote, directed and shot – all of which star her sister, Tinka Menkes.
 

Queen of Diamonds follows the alienated life of Firdaus (Tinka Menkes), a Blackjack dealer in a Las Vegas landscape situated between glittering casino lights and a deteriorating desert oasis. Contending with a missing husband and neighboring domestic violence, Firdaus’ world unfolds as a fragmented but hypnotic interplay between repetition and repressed anger.