REVIEW: DVD Release: Diamonds Of The Night

Film: Diamonds Of The Night
Release date: 26th April 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 68 mins
Director: Jan Němec
Starring: Ladislav Jánsky, Antonín Kumbera, Irma Bischofov
Genre: Drama/Thriller/War
Studio: Second Run
Format: DVD
Country: Czechoslovakia

Winner of the Grand Prize at the 1964 Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival, many critics have hailed Jan Nemec’s Diamonds Of The Night (Demanty Noci) as a startling debut feature – integral to the then burgeoning Czech New Wave. A suggestion the film is deserved of this newly restored UK DVD release.

Two teenage boys escape from a train bound for a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

With absolutely nothing, they have to contend with injury, hunger, thirst, the elements and the unkind woodland environment, as they run for their lives ahead of their pursuing captors, who will seemingly stop at nothing…


From the offset, director Nemec puts you in the mindset of the boys, capturing their emotional and physical anguish as he films through a shaky, jerky camera, which follows the boys up-close as they scramble through the unsympathetic terrain, their breathlessness clearly audible, with prominent unyielding shouts of “halt” and gunfire shots sending shudders – the impact heightened with the lack of a musical soundtrack, aggressive sounds used as an unexpected yet vital tool later on as dialogue is kept to a bare minimum, and always non-essential to the story’s telling.

We are not told why these boys are on the run, or from whom/where (although the sound of a steam train gives our first clue), left to ascertain for ourselves until the film’s near conclusion, as the director looks to increase our confusion with indiscriminate flashbacks and fantasy sequences that cut in abruptly, and on many occasions repeat. These eventually piece together events that brought these two boys to be on the run, but more importantly illustrate the psychological impact of their peril as thoughts become darker, and potentially murderous – when one of the boys enters a woman’s home to steal food, we are given a number of scenarios as to what happens next, privy to his now corrupt thoughts.

The stark black-and-white imagery augments the original storytelling: the boys muddy faces, grubby hands, and well-worn rags give a more obvious visual representation of their plight - the stolen boots that eventually cause injury to one of the boys, thus making the task that much more gruelling (especially for his companion who has to resort to dragging him).

There are some beautifully conceived, and lingering shots throughout, no more powerful than as we view these frail and battered youngsters looking out from their cover within the overgrowth to a farmer whose wife has brought him food - and the lips of one moves tentatively, clearly imagining how good it must taste. When they eventually do acquire bread, their mouths are so dry it becomes yet another heartbreaking difficulty that garners empathy as much as the freezing, wet nights where the anxious boys try to gain some rest. The director is also keen to cut in (the editing as brutal as the story) with harsh, bright light to dramatically offset the otherwise dull tone, and continue the viewer’s disillusion.

The enemy is always unrelenting. No matter how hard the boys run, and we follow them for significant periods, these darkly dressed old men, at times seemingly confused, slowly and methodically continue closely behind, firing their guns - other than threatening hollers, their speech mumbled and inaudible. They epitomise evil, especially when we are afforded greater time in their company; in contrast to the boys’ starvation, they have plenty, and are shown as gluttonous – their celebratory dancing and menacing laughter perhaps the most unsettling moments in a film that troubles throughout.

With limited dialogue, without the need for either to show any emotional shifts, and such unrelenting focus on channelling the viewers’ sympathies to the boys’ circumstance, the performances are somewhat secondary here, but the leads are suitably vague and solemn, and clearly praiseworthy given what both must have put themselves through to deliver on the director’s premise.


Undoubtedly an arduous watch, even at such a short running time, but a chillingly realistic account whose originality, heart and power demands you face this comparatively pale battle of nutrition. DH