Directed by Nina Menkes | 77 mins | 1991
Set in a drab, grimly coruscating Las Vegas, "Queen of Diamonds" again situates Tinka Menkes, the filmmaker’s sister, as an icon of womankind’s profound estrangement under patriarchy. Her character, Firdaus—the name borrowed from the unrepentant murderess of "Woman at Point Zero," Nawal El Saadawi’s 1975 novelization of a real-life story—moves between the two-bit casino at which she works and the motel she calls home: the poles of a listless existence, unfolded at a transfixing pace.