Meet the Fokkens is a slice of life documentary about elderly twin prostitutes, one retired and one still working, in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. Meet the Fokkens has more of a prurient interest in their mischievous nature and the incongruity of their age and their activities. Meet the Fokkens is closer in tone to one of those British comedies starring Judi Dench where elderly people are delightfully engaging in shenanigans.
Meet the Fokkens just jumps in and expects the audience to distinguish the sisters from each other and understand their story from what they share. Meet the Fokkens does not reveal how they got into prostitution until the middle of it, and when the reasons are revealed, one of the sister’s reasons are vague and seem evasive. There is more of a story, but no one to probe it.
Because Meet the Fokkens is not a PBS style documentary, there is frustratingly little explanation to allusions of broader social implications in their lives: why were they forced out of running their own brothel by the government in a certain location; are they slightly xenophobic or are women being trafficked and forced to legally work as prostitutes from other countries; are they objectively correct that even in Europe, government benefits are not enough to cover expenses so the elderly are supposed to work; and are the missionaries sincere or are they part of a financial scam?
There were quite a few segments showing actual transactions between one of the Fokken sisters and her clients. I know that I addressed this question in my review of another documentary, Whores’ Glory, but did the filmmaker pay to do so since it is verging on porn territory? What are the ethics of filming actual sex when it is not porn or for titlation? Unlike Whores’ Glory, you can’t avoid these scenes because they are throughout the film, and if that is something you won’t want to see, I wouldn’t even bother watching Meet the Fokkens because there is no way to avoid those scenes.
Meet the Fokkens has subtitles and usually that is enough to scare away most American viewers. Meet the Fokkens was more superficial than I would have liked. Meet the Fokkens wanted to be lighter and livelier-who the Fokkens strive to be.