“Stolen: Heist of the Century” is a thrilling documentary about the largest diamond heist in history, and it will leave you feeling like it came from a movie script rather than a real-life event.
Instantly, the audience is taken to Antwerp, Belgium, a day after the heist took place. The amount of diamonds, gold and other valuable items taken in the heist was estimated to be around $100 million.
The film then introduces the lead investigator, Agim De Bruycker; he explained 80 percent of the diamonds in the world pass through the diamond district in Antwerp, making it the largest diamond district in the world.
The entire opening sequence left me feeling confused about what is going on, as it shows viewers the perspective of the police and the investigators, who have no idea who could have accomplished a task that seemed so impossible.
The investigators eventually come up with a name to investigate further, where the film then jumps back to two years before the heist. In this setting the audience is introduced to a man named Leonardo Notarbartolo, who was suspected of being involved.
The first question interviewers asked Notarbartolo was if he liked diamonds, to which he replied, “Yes.” This question was immediately followed up by asking him if he was the mastermind behind the heist, to which he denied. He said the mastermind behind it was a man named Alessandro.
Leonardo takes the audience through a very descriptive step-by-step of the two-year preparation leading up to the heist. He describes the crew he was a part of and how they were able to pull it off. Simultaneously, there are clips which jump to investigators trying to piece together evidence and connect it to anyone who could have been involved in the crime.
The investigators had many questions about how accurate Leonardo’s storytelling was. Some facts they knew, but others they struggled to understand because they sounded straight from a movie script; the facts seemed skewed in some areas.
The director did a great job of switching between Leonardo and the investigators to allow the viewer to see both sides of the story in real-time and create controversy for the viewer.
Leonardo described his role in the crew as someone meant to get intel on the building, but he claimed he didn’t contribute elsewhere when the heist took place. The investigators questioned the accuracy of his claim when they found more evidence. What they find will shock you.
A heist like this raises questions about who the mastermind could be in such a well-thought-out and planned heist. The film does a great job of making viewers think they know who it is until the end, when the plot twist causes the audience to rethink the whole plan of the heist.
This is a wonderful documentary about the greatest diamond heist in history, as it gives the audience a behind-the-scenes story of the thieves and investigators. It is sure to keep viewers guessing, and raise lots of questions.
