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Netherlands · 2011
1h 20m
Director Rob Schröder
Starring Louise Fokkens, Martine Fokkens
Genre Documentary
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This documentary follows Louise and Martine Fokkens, 69 year-old identical twin sisters who have been working as prostitutes in Amsterdam's Red Light District for over forty years. They share their life stories and detail the challenges they've faced and overcome making a living as sex workers.
Directors Rob Schröder and Gabrielle Provaas capture some un-pretty details of spankings, HJs, and dominance scenarios, but the film is about two old ladies, still cackling despite the sadness that trailed in the wake of the lives into which they were forced.
New York Daily News by Elizabeth Weitzman
What we really want is to get to know them. Instead, the film too-aptly reflects life in their line of work: brief interludes rather than intimate soul-baring. That's a shame, since there can't be that many 70-year-old identical twin prostitutes with a 50-year history in the business.
Truthfully, watching septuagenarian whores spank mildly titillated johns and test-drive sex toys has never seemed so ho-hum - or so oddly familiar.
The Hollywood Reporter by John DeFore
Warm-hearted and entertaining, if more sad than its quirky premise suggests.
Slant Magazine by Joseph Jon Lanthier
Few recent studies of commercialized sex have been character profiles, so Rob Schröder and Gabrielle Provaas's documentary is an unusual and welcome polemic.
The New York Times by Manohla Dargis
Why the sisters felt that prostitution was their best alternative remains unclear, either because they aren't interested in revealing that part of themselves, or the filmmakers didn't know how to get them to talk. Or maybe Ms. Provaas and Mr. Schroder weren't interested, for political or personal reasons, in making what, despite the laughter, they ended up with: another sad story about whores.
Ultimately, Meet The Fokkens isn't a documentary about elderly hookers; it's about two women forced into a hard life by circumstance, who tried to make the best of their situation, and are trying still.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen
Despite the occasional stumble, the doc never falls, thanks to the sheer strength of its subjects' undaunted and indomitable character.
Rob Schroder and Gabrielle Provaas' raunchy, hilariously uninhibited documentary should wow arthouse audiences.
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