I’m tempted to advise that anyone who decides to see Meet the Fokkens watch it on mute because the Dutch language might be the ugliest language of all time. However, without really listening to the Fokken sister’s nuances in their language (and the hysterical, European “ohhhh” that replaces the punctuation in their conversations) accompanied with the beautiful music that fills wordless frames, you’d miss the point.
The documentary follows the Fokken sisters in Amsterdam. They’re not just any pair of identical twins; Louise and Martine are 70-year-old sisters who have worked as prostitutes in the red light district for over 50 years. Before you avert your eyes from gross old-people sex, watch a little bit longer. Listening to Louise and Martine illustrate their anecdotes of embarrassment, poverty, abuse, and friendship, you feel inspired by their story in a way you wouldn’t expect to feel about ladies of the night.
The Fokken sisters’ beauty comes from their cheeky, unabashed, and fearless attitude towards sex. The audience is introduced to Martine buying a large box of condoms and joking with the store clerk about all the tricks she pulled over the years. In another scene, Martine and Louise are shopping for vibrators and sex toys in a local shop and comparing the new models to the ones they already have. Both sisters understand their profession’s stigma, and so an exchange stood out as being wildly profound, despite their constant silliness: “You did the work, you’ve been a whore. You’ll never get rid of that name. They’ll always call you names, so be one.” I cannot remember the last time I gave anyone such good advice.