Rough Diamonds (2023) is a Belgian drama series about an orthodox Jewish family within the diamond industry and the estranged Noah, who returns to help them after his younger brother ends his life. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Janki is the youngest son in the Wolfson family, the owners of Wolfson Diamonds, and part of the world-famous diamond industry in Antwerp. When Janki commits suicide, the family is thrown into turmoil and signals the return of Noah Wolfson.
Noah left behind his family and religion to live free in London. He goes back to Antwerp with his son Tommy, to attend his brother’s funeral and see how his family is doing.
His brother Eli and his sister Adina are the ones running the business as his father, Ezra, is too old. Ezra doesn’t want to talk to Noah for abandoning the family and except for Adina, the others aren’t receptive to him either.
Janki’s wife, Gila, appears to have some kind of connection with Noah but she doesn’t want to speak to him since she’s supposed to be in mourning.
Noah tries to find out why Janki would have killed himself and learns that his brother was involved with bookies and racked up many gambling debts. With some help, Noah takes care of the issue so that his family doesn’t have to worry.
Meanwhile, Prosecutor Jo Smetz has been investigating corrupt bankers and the Albanian Mafia in Antwerp to find out where they keep their dirty money. They find some uncut diamonds and figure the Albanians are linked to the diamond district.
Noah needs to get back to London because his boss keeps calling him. It is revealed that Noah’s boss, Kerra, is also his mother-in-law and a drug dealer. She wants him to handle some deals for her and becomes frustrated when he leaves.
The more time Noah spends with his family, the more he finds out about the business and how poorly it is doing. Eli, Adina, and Noah discover that Yanki had also made deals with a shady client who was actually working for the Albanians.
Noah makes a deal with the mob and their mediator, Mathias Dumont, to launder their money through diamonds so that they can pay back a debt with one of their suppliers and maintain their family name within the community.
The relationship with the Albanians complicates their lives further but there is also much internal strife to deal with. Their cousin Benny Feldman is trying to cause discontent between the siblings so that he can get a chunk of the business for himself.
Gila used to be Noah’s fiance before he left and Janki stepped in. The two of them still have feelings for each other but they are not sure about acting on them. Gila’s family is trying to get her married to someone else for the sake of her children.
Kerra gets involved in Noah’s deal with the Albanians and he is constantly under pressure from both sides to deliver, even though he wants to get his family out of danger.
Jo gets incriminating evidence on Eli and uses him as a mole to get information on the Albanians and later an underground bank that operates out of the diamond district.
Her superiors tell her to back down because they have an important relationship with the district. When she pushes Eli to testify anonymously against his own people, he refuses.
She raids the diamond district in retaliation and Eli has to come clean about being a mole to his siblings. They look for a way to get her off their back but she is relentless.
Gila and Noah rekindle their romance, although she also receives a marriage proposal from a nice man from the community. She is unsure which side she should take.
Noah comes up with a plan to steal a large shipment of diamonds on Rosh Hashanah to solve all of their problems at once. He also asks Gila to move to London with him once things settle down.
Rough Diamonds (2023) ending explained:
What is Noah’s plan?
Noah and Kerra visit the Albanians to tell them that they’ll be stealing the diamonds and want the mob to hold them until things are safe. The cut is split between the mob, Kerra, and Noah, with Kerra’s part sent to her in London after the job.
After the heist, Noah hands over the diamonds to Mathias but what they don’t know is that Noah has placed a tracker in the briefcase so that he can find out where it is stashed.
They tell Jo that they can give her the location if she backs down on the case against the diamond district but she refuses because she has another witness to talk to.
Who is the other witness?
Eli, Adina, and Noah are quite sure that Benny is the one who’s offering to testify because of how was cast out when he tried to break them up. They threaten to expose him as the mole but he doesn’t seem to be bothered.
They learn that he’s got a job with his future in-laws in Belgium which is why he has nothing to lose. Adina says she might have something to persuade Benny to back down.
She meets with the local matchmaker and records her saying that Benny’s son was rumored to be “different” which is why she didn’t look for a match for him in the same community and chose to go far away.
They take this recording and go to Benny to convince him not to testify and then tell Jo that she has to accept their deal.
What happens to the diamonds?
Jo makes the deal and tells her superiors that she is ready to ignore the diamond district bank but has information on the diamond heist and Albanians.
When she gets there, she doesn’t find the stones and tells Noah that if he doesn’t find out where they are, she will arrest him instead. He goes to see the Albanians and they tell him that they were tipped off at the last moment and moved the stones.
He returns home and Jo has him arrested so as a last attempt at freedom, he tells her about the diamonds with Kerra. The police in London arrest her and shut down her operation while in Antwerp, Mathias ends up becoming the state’s witness.
However, Mathias is later assassinated while Noah stays back with his family to run the business, unsure of the future.
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