Queen of Diamonds

A spellbinding fever dream of Las Vegas neon and desert landscape, and the peripatetic woman who labours in its heart.

  • Director

    Nina Menkes

  • With

    Tinka Menkes

  • USA 1991. 77min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    15

Menkes’ arrestingly oneiric fugue of a film centres the character of Firdaus (played by her sister and frequent collaborator Tinka), a taciturn Las Vegas casino blackjack dealer who spends her days working and killing time. Menkes’ trancelike aesthetic of striking tableaus disorient – whether of parched desert, neon’s corrupted decadence, or mundane ritual – all the while critiquing the hidden violence that lurks beneath.