Los diamantes de Amberes: El robo del siglo

As a huge fan of documentaries, I can say that this is my favorite of 2025 and probably in my top ten overall. The story of how these men pulled off a diamond heist from the diamond capital of the world-- in a building that could be described as Belgium's fort Knox-- kept me intrigued from start to finish. I'll spare the details, but suffice to say that this team had to think of everything and took their time doing it. It really kept me on the edge of my seat, as if I was watching a Mission Impossible movie the entire time.

I can't recommend this documentary enough.

This series presents a detailed look at a diamond heist. It features interviews with police and robbers, as well as tons of photographs and videos from the case. Overall, it does a great job breaking down the crime, the investigation, and the aftermath.

I didn't know anything about this occurrence before watching but I felt it provided a good picture based on all available evidence.

The only thing I didn't like was the attitude of some of the police who openly admitted they didn't understand how the robbers did certain things which is fine, and obvious. But then based on nothing, they then called the thieves liars when they explained how they did what they did. Basically, policeman came across as unknowledgeable, incompetent, But also extremely confident whatever did happen, the thieves aren't telling the truth...Seem like the lawman was still salty after all these years and just wanted to talk bad about the robbers.

I don't think I have ever written a review of a documentary. Having seen many good documentaries, I was interested in watching this one. What a disappointment! It is just a continuous natterring of a cop's voice with some background assumed happening of the heist. Watching this was a total bore and no facts were laid bare other than assumptions. Eventually it comes to a conclusion after 1 and a half hours, but by then I was totally fed-up and sorry I watched it to conclusion.

As "Stolen: The Heist of the Century" (2025 release; 95 min.) opens, it is "Monday, 17th February 2003", and we learn that over the weekend, the District Center in Antwerp, Belgium has been breached, with millions worth of diamonds gone. Antwerp is the diamond capital of the world (85% of the world's diamonds pass through it.) Who could have possibly done this? And, even more intriguingly, HOW? At this point we are less than 10 minutes into the documentary.

Couple of comments: this is directed by Mark Lewis ("Vatican Girl"). Here he reassesses after more than 2 decades how this heist was executed. The sheer audacity and brazenness of this heist immediately made me think of some of the Mission Impossible movies. Except of course this is not fiction, and it really did happen. I'm not going to spoil anything. Just sit back, relax and enjoy this real life Mission Impossible. I hasten to add that I myself hail from Antwerp, Belgium (but now a longtime resident of the US), and I immediately recognized most of the footage showing Antwerp (affectionally nicknamed by the locals as "t Stad", which means "the City" in English). I was in Antwerp just last week in fact.

""Stolen: The Heist of the Century" started streaming recently on Netflix, which "suggested" it to me based on my viewing habits. Thanks Netflix! If you are in the mood for a captivating true crime documentary that is as stunning as it is brazen, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.

No pun intended - no promises either? Well if a movie (or documentary in this case) promises so much (see title) ... well most of the time it will not really be able to hold up to anything close to that. And I would argue the same is true for this one too.

Don't get me twisted, it is a good documentary, nice interviews ... very well constructed ... but is it as big as it promises? Well I'd say no - also some people who are not fluent in every language spoken on planet earth (ok I am exaggerating, but you get my point) might feel left out here - not everyone likes subtitles as much as I do .. and some others. True crime addicts will never get bored of course ...