‘Diamonds’: Ferzan Ozpetek assembles a dazzling love letter to women, cinema, and Italian craftsmanship

Italian auteur Ferzan Ozpetek is returning to the big screen with Diamonds (Diamanti), a sweeping ensemble drama that blends cinema, memory, fashion, and female solidarity into one of the director’s most ambitious films to date.

Set between the present day and the 1970s, Diamonds follows a film director gathering the actresses he has loved and worked with throughout his career. But instead of revealing the story outright, Ozpetek slowly immerses audiences into a world populated by seamstresses, costume makers, fabrics, fittings, and the emotional currents flowing beneath a women-run costume atelier in Rome.

The result is part backstage drama, part nostalgic meditation, and part celebration of the women who quietly shape cinema from behind the scenes.

Stars gather behind Rome’s atelier

The film boasts a staggering ensemble cast led by Luisa Ranieri and Jasmine Trinca, alongside a powerhouse lineup of Italian talent including Kasia Smutniak, Elena Sofia Ricci, Vanessa Scalera, Anna Ferzetti, Geppi Cucciari, Lunetta Savino, Carla Signoris, Aurora Giovinazzo, Paola Minaccioni, and Milena Vukotic. Stefano Accorsi also appears in the film, continuing his long creative relationship with Ozpetek.

For Ozpetek, Diamonds is deeply personal. The Turkish-Italian filmmaker drew inspiration from his own experiences in the 1980s when he worked as an assistant director and spent time inside legendary film and theater tailoring workshops such as Tirelli. Those ateliers — filled with sketches, sewing machines, fittings, fabrics, and women collaborating intensely under pressure — left a lasting impression on him.

In the official press notes, Ozpetek describes these spaces as “secular sanctuaries of beauty,” where creativity flourished through craftsmanship, discipline, and obsession with detail.

Costumes become emotional architecture

That obsession becomes central to Diamonds. Rather than treating costumes as decorative afterthoughts, the film reframes them as emotional architecture. Dresses become extensions of identity, labor, memory, and performance itself.

Costume designer Stefano Ciammitti worked closely with the production from the screenplay stage onward, helping shape both the visual language and the practical realities of the atelier world. The production also gained access to the famed Tirelli Trappetti archives, allowing the team to draw inspiration from some of Italian cinema’s most iconic garments.

Among the standout creations is an elaborate red dress requiring more than 160 meters of fabric layered with black crinoline — a design that becomes one of the movie’s central visual motifs. The film also references costumes connected to legendary filmmakers including Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini, reinforcing Ozpetek’s ongoing fascination with Italian cinematic history.

Lush visuals echo hidden labor

Visually, Diamonds appears poised to continue the lush aesthetic style Ozpetek fans have come to expect. The director has long balanced emotional intimacy with sensual imagery, often using interiors, food, music, and clothing to explore longing, loneliness, family tensions, and chosen communities.

Those themes remain intact here. According to the synopsis, the film explores loneliness, heartbreak, competition, invisible labor, sisterhood, and the complicated bonds between women navigating both work and personal survival. Men, notably, occupy largely marginal roles within the story’s universe.

That perspective shift feels intentional. Diamonds is not simply a film about women; it is a film built through women’s emotional and professional experiences.

Women’s stories drive cinematic heartbeat

Ozpetek has repeatedly stated throughout his career that he feels particularly drawn to stories centered on women and family relationships. In Diamonds, he channels that interest into a multi-generational portrait of collaboration and resilience.

The soundtrack also carries major weight in the production. Original music comes from composers Giuliano Taviani and Carmelo Travia, while additional songs performed by Italian icons Mina, Patty Pravo, and Giorgia help anchor the film in both nostalgia and emotional grandeur. Giorgia also performs the original song “Diamanti.”

For Ozpetek, Diamonds marks another milestone in a career already filled with acclaimed works including The Ignorant Fairies, Facing Windows, Loose Cannons, Magnificent Presence, and The Goddess of Fortune. Across decades, the director has cultivated an unmistakable cinematic voice — emotionally layered, visually opulent, and deeply invested in the intersections between memory, desire, and identity.

Celebrating the unseen hands of cinema

With Diamonds, Ozpetek appears less interested in spectacle for its own sake than in honoring invisible artistry: the women sewing seams, adjusting fabrics, solving crises, and quietly holding productions together while history remembers someone else’s name.

That idea may ultimately become the film’s greatest statement.

Cinema has always celebrated stars. Diamonds wants audiences to notice the hands stitching the magic together.