Jewellery designer Aja Raden

NOTHING LASTS FOREVER
Directed by Jason Kohn
Certificate: 12a
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THE diamond trade is built on the rarity and beauty of these precious stones. This gives them a value.

Added to that, gems have a special place in our shared consciousness: Diamonds Are Forever; Diamonds are A Girl’s Best Friend. We’ve had it hammered home that if we love our partners, we get them a diamond ring to prove it.

Film maker Jason Kohn looks at this sparkly world and what transpires demolishes the global trade in gems and our false belief about how you gauge value.

Kohn, with the help of a range of expert, balanced talking heads considers the issue of diamonds grown in lab. Many used for cutting and are imperceptible in difference to one dug up.

It means there are millions of machine-made stones out there.

As for those dug up, we are told their rarity is a lie created by decades of clever marketing. Diamonds are everywhere, they are fairly easy to mine, and the stories told about the miner seeing a glint and chiselling away to uncover something magnificent is complete nonsense. It doesn’t happen. What does happen is industrial diggers cleave huge holes in the ground across parts of Africa and smash the rocks to smithereens.

Jewellery designer Aja Raden is the star. Her explanation of the world of gems is jaw-dropping. Her talent as a scientist, historian and designer means she is in a unique position to give us the lowdown on the industry. You’ll never look at a dazzling stone in quite the same way again.

Kohn has created a watchable investigation into a trade that deserves a curious light shone on it. He asks what gives an object value. Dealers explain that their product should be expensive because of the culture (created, um, by diamond sellers) of buying a present for someone you love. They suggest if synthetic diamonds flood the market – and they already have – the sparkly edifice is fatally undermined.

Kohn wonders if a diamond has cost a whack to extract, does that add worth? What about the cost? They come from areas suffering from violent exploitation.

Diamonds have caused bloodshed. That they may be “rare” should be countered by the damage caused by mining.

And if a lab diamond is physically the same, then why should anyone want to have one that is the product of exploitation and environmental destruction?