Viewing tip: documentary about Yab Yum in Amsterdam
If you love documentaries, this is really a must-see. And if you don't, then actually it is too. This week, NPO released a documentary about the infamous brothel Yab Yum in Amsterdam, and I watched it captivated for almost an hour and a half. And that's because the documentary didn't even hit that hour and a half, by the way; it could have been a bit longer for my taste.
I personally didn't consciously experience the time when Yab Yum was so popular, so I've always found it a bit of a far-from-my-bed-show. Now I do live in Amsterdam, but to think that not so long ago there was a club open like this... I find it hard to imagine. Because holy shitballs, bizarre things happened there.
Of course, coke was snorted, criminals came — we know that kind of stuff and you expect it. But then to hear the stories from former owners, and especially former employees, that hits differently.
And I must say: the atmosphere in the doc is also fitting. The former owner sitting there with a fat cigar, everything filmed in Yab Yum itself (which is now closed; after the brothel's closure, it briefly became a museum but that is also closed now), the stories about the richest people who came there throwing around money; quite impressive, I must say.
But of course, enough grim things also happened, which weren't really talked about. Or well, maybe they didn't dare to talk about it: a bouncer who was liquidated, for example, that's quickly kept quiet about. ‘I promised never to talk about that.’ While that bouncer apparently already knew the date, because he is said to have said: ‘If I get shot, it will be on that date.’ And that turned out to be true.
That's the only downside: I want to know everything about all the grimness that took place there. The extortions by Mieremet and Klepper, the crime that came, the liquidations: Give. Me. All. The. Details. But they are a bit reserved about that. Which is understandable, of course. But really: you want to see this.
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Image: Trailer Yab Yum: a must-see about one of the most infamous sex clubs ever
