Ben Apfelbaum

DARK DIAMOND : PART OF THIS YEAR’S JIFF FESTIVAL

DARK DIAMOND (also known as Dark Inclusion), directed by Arthur Harari, is set against the backdrop of Antwerp’s diamond industry. It purports to be a cinema noir thriller.

This is basically a revenge film where a young petty criminal seeks revenge on his jewish diamond dealer Uncle for abandoning his late father. It is also a study in the dysfunctionality of the Uncle’s family.

Niels Schneider plays the lead role of Pier who in order to find a way to exact this vengeance slowly works his way into his Uncle Joseph’s (Hans-Peter Cloos) family. Uncle Joseph has a conflicted relationship with his son Gabby (August Diehl). Throw Gabi’s attractive wife Louise (Raphaele Godin) into the mix and there are plenty of family distractions to possibly divert Pier from carrying out his revenge. Obviously with Diamonds there is the inevitable plot to rob some.

Niels Schneider as a dark brooding presence reminiscent of a young Johnny Depp and is fully committed to his role as the conflicted Pier.  All the other actors are uniformly excellent but alas this is not to save this film.

Its narrative unfolds in a linear fashion but at such a slow pace that any suspense or thriller trope is disappointingly dissipated, As far for the cinema noir aspect there are too many dark murky scenes where one strains to see what is going on.

At one hundred and fifteen minutes, combined with its languid pace, it drags on for far too long. This is Arthur Harre’s feature directorial debut and he has made a promising start. However, he must be more ruthless in the editing room, work at plotting pace to keep us engaged,  and delineate the elements more clearly in the lighting of his noir scenes.

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.