Yab Yum (2021)

Directed by: Anna Maria van ‘t Hek | 75 minutes | documentary

The famous sex club Yab Yum in Amsterdam’s Red Light District is far behind the golden years. In fact, Yab Yum was shut down in 2008 because of alleged extortion. Anna Maria van ‘t Hek (‘Badr’) worked on this documentary for several years, so it’s not surprising that people are only talking now – especially when you consider that former owner Theo Heuft passed away in 2020.

Heuft himself also speaks, and rarely did so before. Rumors about regular visits by top criminals such as Bruinsma, Klepper, Mieremet and Holleeder had been around before; now we know more. That alone makes ‘Yab Yum’ worthwhile. Van ‘t Hek invested well in the relations; many of the club’s intimates have their say: the manager, the bartenders, a single client, former police spokesman Klaas Wilting and a few ‘hostesses’.

In a disarmingly sober style, Van ‘t Hek actually does everything right, without making a lot of waves. After all, the story itself already does that, the maker only has to cut away the layer of varnish. It turned out to be impossible to name names and numbers of customers and criminals. The Dutch National Team came by, not at the most insignificant moment in sports history, and a top criminal shot and killed a doorman.

One of the ladies of pleasure reveals a heartbreaking life story; the affection among the staff is endearing – the typical story of castaways seeking warmth in artificial light. And the money is of course a nice bonus, even if you don’t attract the best people with it. In any case, Van ‘t Hek subtly cuts down on the freedom-happiness mythology from the 1970s.

Demis Roussos in Yab Yum, we don’t have to imagine it. In any case, the colors of his shirts matched perfectly with the excellently portrayed interior of the world’s most famous sex club, where one of the protagonists claims to have seen ‘every famous Dutchman in his bare ass’. A bit of Amsterdam exaggeration will be part of it, but of course there is also a kernel of truth.