Los diamantes de Amberes: El robo del siglo

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.

The story of the 2003 diamond theft in Antwerp.

The film consists of interviews with the main convict and the police officers investigating the case. Each tells their own version of the story, and each has a different one. Although it is a documentary, it is very reminiscent of outstanding feature films such as Kurosawa's "Rashomon" from 1950 or Singer's "The Usual Suspects" from 1995.

A very well-made film (though at times overdramatized) about the fact that we will likely never know exactly what happened during the Antwerp robbery.

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 ...

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.

From the outset, it's unclear whether we're watching a faithful reconstruction of real events or a Blair Witch-style fiction. That ambiguity seems deliberate, and while it unsettles, it also piques curiosity.

The restrained tone in presenting the events is appreciated-it enhances their plausibility. I understand that stories like this require certain narrative and stylistic liberties, and overall, the staging works.

However, as the film progresses, inconsistencies begin to emerge, creating narrative dissonance. By the end, the viewer is likely left with basic, even crucial questions that the director appears to have deliberately avoided. That omission not only weakens the story but leaves the audience with a lingering sense of emptiness.

What initially promised to be a compelling documentary ultimately dissolves into a narrative that doesn't dare to close its own doors. In the end, you're left with a "well... I guess that's it," when you were hoping for something far more impactful.