Rough Diamonds

Rough Diamonds is an 8-part crime drama that follows the struggles and strife of the Wolfsons, a prominent ultra-Orthodox Jewish family within Antwerp’s world-famous diamond industry. When their youngest son takes his own life, his long-estranged brother Noah (played by Kevin Janssens) – who turned his back on his religion and made a new home within the criminal fraternity of London – returns to Antwerp and finds out that the family business is on the brink of collapse and under the heel of the local mob. While Noah desperately attempts to save the Wolfsons’ business and protect the family’s legacy and honor, he and his siblings must first settle their own internal battles.

Rough Diamonds is the first fiction series to delve so deeply behind the scenes of the Antwerp diamond world. The production was granted permission to film in the actual -heavily guarded- diamond district and on the real diamond bourse. The story also offers a glimpse into the typically closed culture of the approximately 10,000 Chassidic Jews in Antwerp, and for that, intensive collaboration was conducted with the people from that community after years of research.

Rough Diamonds is a co-production of De Mensen and Keshet International for Netflix and Eén (VRT). With the support of Screen Flanders, the Creative Europe – Media program of the European Union, and the Tax Shelter measure of the Federal Government. With the collaboration of the City of Antwerp and thanks to the support of the Antwerp Film Bonus, and with the much-appreciated support of AWDC (the Antwerp World Diamond Centre) and the Antwerp Diamond Bourse.