Queen of Diamonds

A seminal work by independent filmmaker Menkes, Queen of Diamonds was filmed on location in Las Vegas. Menkes’s sister and collaborator, Tinka Menkes, plays an alienated blackjack dealer in Sin City. The film takes a close look at the desolation of daytime Vegas, contrasting the lights, noise, and life of the city with the quiet, lonely reality of its residents. Menkes uses long takes and extended periods of silence to convey her character’s solitary life in the Nevada desert. “Even at a terse 76 minutes, Queen of Diamonds is not an easy film. But it’s an essential one” (Glenn Kenny, New York Times).