Three films from the Film Festival Cologne 2016 that you must watch

Film Festival Cologne 2016 was held in the city of Cologne, Germany – ranging films from all over the world including South Korea, New Zealand, US, Japan and many more. The festival highlighted some of the finest films that the world cinema has to offer.

So this is the part one of my review of the festival:

The Handmaiden by Park Chan-Wook


The Handmaiden’s story takes place in the 1930s Korea, where con-man Count Fujiwara with the help of a pickpocket named Sook-hee, swindle a fragile heiress Lady Hideko off her wealth and plan to send her to the looney bin.

Tickled by David Farrier and Dylan Reeve


The story begins with David Farrier, an amateur reporter who stumbles across a Facebook page which displays ‘tickling’ as ‘competitive endurance’ sport. Keenly interested, he decides to contact the video producer Jane O’Brien for a short reportage on the sport. And what he gets in return is a hostile reply from the video company, focusing on his bisexuality and asserting that the sport is a ‘passionately and exclusively heterosexual athletic endurance activity’.

And by the end of the reply, they warn David to stay away from the story or there will be legal action taken against him.

Certain Women by Kelly Reichhardt


The film comprises of three different stories tied loosely, in strange ways, paralleling one another in small town America.

The first story stars Laura Dern as an attorney to a client who is systematically being f***** by the judicial system and ends up taking the situation into his own hands. The second is a low key drama of a woman (played by Michelle Williams) who wants to build her dream home with her family, but her ambitious projects puts her at odds with the others in her life. And the third is a study of a naïve yet ambiguous friendship formed between a young law student and a lonely ranch hand.