Demons to Diamonds

The La Défense district of Paris—a jungle of impersonal glass-and-steel towers and anonymous retail chains, dominated by the 110-meter-high concrete arch known as the Grande Arche—is the central character in Noujaïm’s eponymous trilogy, of which Demons to Diamonds is the third chapter. Premiered at the artist’s solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel and more recently at MoMA, the film quite literally opens with a thud: the sound of a body falling from the sky. Panic erupts as crowds scatter in every direction, only to reveal that this is just one of many tragedies haunting the district: every evening at exactly 6:59 PM, someone jumps. An underground figure, chained and ghostlike, delivers a monologue that serves as the film’s conscience. In the eerie glow of this bleak, futureless city, lives collide, and destruction emerges as the only possible path to rebirth.