Cleaning up body juices of strangers, guiding BDSM outings and giving advice on vibrators to 85-year-olds: for Esmee it is the most normal thing in the world. She runs the night shift in the Helmondse sex cinema Cupido.
Esmee is one of the night owls with whom program maker Merlijn Passier walks around in his new program for a night Merlin and the night owls. In it he investigates what happens in our province when everyone is sleeping. Esmee has one condition before she agrees: “You have to help clean after closing time!”
Merlin has quite a few prejudices about such a sex cinema. “We all have internet nowadays? Why would you still go to such a room? Are you not just dirty males there?” But according to Esmee you have to see it differently. “It is actually more of a meeting place. Here you see each other in person, so that makes it a bit more exciting than porn watching.”
Not just for men
Time for a tour. Esmee shows in the sex cinema for everyone. A special room for gays, a special room for heterosexuals, a dark room and a BDSM room. Everywhere kitchen rolls hang on the wall …
In the ‘straight room’ a woman is watching the film. Merlin surprises that. “Many people think that men in particular go to the sex cinema, but that is not the case at all,” says Esmee. “There will also be many women who like to be pampered by the other visitors. Women have that need for tension and public sex just as good as men.”
Hatseflatsen
Merlin has to swallow. “I don’t find myself that fussy, but this is not at all in my experience world. But I envy the people who are sorry for everything and just do this.”
René and Kim* belong to those people. “We first came here to buy some things in the store and then we thought: we’re going to look behind the curtain,” says René. “We are happy to do it in public, then you have more tension. Nice hatseeflatsen!”
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And how often is that possible in a day? “Well, if it’s up to her always,” says René. “She’s always whore!” Kim is not ashamed of anything, she says. “You have to do what you feel like. And this just gives a really kick.”
Gloryholes
The night shift is over, time to resolve the promise. While Merlin puts on Latex gloves and makes a hot water, Esmee already gives a tip as a seasoned sex cinema employee. “If you remove the garbage bag with used tissues, you have to move the bag ‘of your way’. Then you don’t smell the seed so much.”
But yes, the body juices did not only end up in the tissues. Merlin finds here and there some last silent witnesses of the party that has just happened here. “I think this is a bit dirty,” says Merlin as he threw a wet track with a cloth. “But it is a comfort that someone has enjoyed it a lot.”
Vibrator for 85-year-old
After all Gloryholes and Skai-leather benches have been put off, Merlin makes a small round through the sex shop. Esmee knows the entire range and can advise anyone. “There are all kinds of people here. I am not looking at anything anymore. Last week there was another man of 85 who came to get a vibrator for his wife, as a gift.”
*The names of René and Kim are fictitious.
Merlin and the night owls
See for yourself how things are going at night in the sex cinema? Or what it is like to take a night with an 112 photographer? Episode 2 is now To view on Brabant+.
If you are curious about stories and images from behind the scenes, sign up at Merlijn’s newsletter and the night owls.
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