Jellyfish

This is a loosely woven story about different people who all live in the same city, and occasionally cross paths, but do not know each other. The stories of the individual characters at first seem ordinary, but there are hidden insights into their lives that are touching. An elfin from the ocean adds an unresolved aspect.

Does it matter that the protagonist barely has a roof over her head, while her publicity-seeking mother champions the cause of the homeless? Does it matter that parents and offspring misunderstand each other, or worse, are apathetic? Does it matter that the elfin with the float ring mysteriously appears and disappears. Life itself is this way, rarely neat and tidy.

To those who like a film to be obvious with its message and linear with its storyline, this film will disappoint. To others who are willing to just watch and float along, this movie will have you enjoying it long after the closing credits have rolled. Definitely a film to talk about!

NICE : As Paul Thomas Anderson with "Magnolia", Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen chose with "Meduzot" to focus on a few characters that life randomly carries from one shore to another. Everything is tainted by a depressive but amusing tone that gives a pleasant melancholia feeling to the spectator. The fact that the story happens in Tel-Aviv does't seem to affect the lightness of this unpretentious movie, that only wants to underline the loneliness every human being faces in his life and give a little touch of hope to this sad fact.

EASY : As Agnès Jaoui in "Le Goût des autres", Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen don't avoid in "Meduzot" some very easy and predictable critics, especially when it comes to give a satirical look on the artistic world of theater of the city. They also can't avoid some "Shortcuts" in the portrayal of their characters, and especially in the depiction of the angry - but at the end nice and well... just lonely - old lady. This two elements spoil a little bit the pleasure you can get to the pleasant little scenes the film offer.

Meduzot (2007) is an Israeli film written and co-directed by Shira Geffen. (The other co- director is Etgar Keret.) The film was shown in the U.S. with the title "Jellyfish."

Sarah Adler plays Batia, a fine person, but possibly the world's worst waitress. One day, at the seashore, a young girl drifts to shore, buoyed by a small plastic doughnut-shaped tube, and walks up to Batia. This little girl, played by Nikol Leidman, never speaks. We know she exists, because at one point she and Batia are in a police station, and the detective sees her too. However, that's all we know about her. Ms. Leidman is either completely guileless, or she's the best actor in the film. Her solemn, wide-eyed gaze is riveting.

Several other characters interact in the film--a Filipino nurse who has been forced to emigrate without her young son, a brother and sister and their sick mother, and a newly wedded bride who has broken her leg on her wedding day.

I enjoyed the movie because it was about ordinary people living ordinary lives--no soldiers, no explosions, no violent confrontations. The acting was uniformly excellent, and I was caught up in the film from beginning to end. It's worth seeing and worth seeking out. It will probably work well on DVD--most of the action is intimate and doesn't require a large screen. This film was shown at the excellent Rochester High Falls International Film Festival.

This film is an elegant, simply told, and uplifting look at ordinary life. Although it relates the problems of the cast of main characters at different stages in their various lives, it does so with many small touches of humour, which lifts the mood along the way. Above all, expect a good, tight, literary script, which manages to weave together the disparate story lines to make a convincing whole. I saw this at the Dublin Film Festival, and I hope very strongly that it makes it to general release in Ireland and the UK. There are a lot of inferior art-house films which get distributed because they have big names behind them. However, Jellyfish, I think, shows you can have the serious and thoughtful, but in a lighter package.

This film is showing at the Maine Jewish Film Festival in April and I was fortunate enough to see it early. The film is a unique offering from Israel where you do not often see poetic films like this. The acting is excellent, too. The story may be a bit abstract for some and others may think it is a bit derivative. But all art derives from life or reflections of life and this film is a wonderful look into the lives of these women and a mysterious little nymph from the ocean who wears a float ring. Well worth the awards garnered so far: Cannes Film Festival,Bratislava International Film Festival, and Israeli film Academy. A movie worth seeking out!