Dealers Among Dealers

They stake fortunes on a precious stone, they travel from London to Geneva or Miami for a stone… Gambling, treasure hunting, passion – or a combination of all these – are simply part of their job. They are the diamond merchants of Jewellers’ Row near 47th Street in New York. The trade is still basically run by Jewish dealers and has rituals and codes of honour dating back to the Middle Ages, handed down from father to son. Yet, it has a firm footing in the modern world, where the 1990s market fever made and unmade fortunes. The film depicts the thousand different facets of this tiny world, from offices where a handshake alone clinches the deal and art workshops where the work is done to Hebrew canticles, through to the big international sales which have the whole world on the phone.