Customer Reviews

Jellyfish (Meduzot)

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4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There are an increasingly impressive number of films coming from Israel and MEDUZOT (JELLYFISH) is one of the more creative works of cinematic art in that rich catalogue. Shira Geffen (who also wrote the screenplay) and Etgar Keret collaborated on this seemingly small film and from a few threads of separate and disparate characterizations have woven a fascinating and deeply touching montage of the lives of several people whose destinies curiously intersect. The manner in which the film is presented is a graceful mixture of naturalism and fantasy and the directors know just how to combine the two approaches to maximum effect.

The film opens in Tel Aviv at a routine wedding reception where untidy Batya (Sarah Adler) works as a waitress, her life being recently shaken by the dissolution of her relationship. At this noisy and gaudy reception we also notice the bride Keren (Noa Knoller) who encounters an accident in the washroom that results in a broken leg requiring a cast and preventing her from a planned honeymoon (her new husband Michael - Gera Sandler - finds instead a hotel on the noisy boulevard which is less than romantic), and Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), a Filipino caregiver for older unwanted women who works to send support to her young son in the Philippines, and a young female photographer who captures it all on film. The owner of the catering business fires Batya and the photographer and the two share living space. While musing on the beach Batya finds a strange young mute girl (Nicol Leidman) wearing a circular floating device and when Batya cannot find the girl's parents she resorts to police help - a turn which only places Batya as custodian of the strange child.

Meanwhile Keren and Michael begin their disastrous honeymoon in the noisy hotel, discovering that the quiet top floor suite is occupied by a single woman poet whom Michael meets and eventually requests they trade rooms, a decision that leads to strange circumstances that affect all three people. And during this time Joy is passed among several older women, ending up with a cranky mother of an actress who speaks only Hebrew and German and takes her time growing into the kindness Joy offers her. Small incidents continue to occur, incidents that bind these people together in mysterious ways, some happy, some sad. And while the characters of this tapestry are very realistically drawn, there are moments of magical realism that embroider their lives with a glowing sense of fantasy - moments that address the topics of childhood memories, core needs, death, and that universal need to connect to others. This is a delicate work of crocheted art that remains in the mind long after the credits of this gifted cast and production crew complete the film. In Hebrew with English subtitles. Grady Harp, October 08

In "Jellyfish" three stories about ordinary people, mostly women, unfold in the city of Tel Aviv. With very poetic, sometimes bizarre images that are often humorous in an unexpected way, "Jellyfish" shows the changes that happen inside these flawed, but ultimately lovable characters will eventually experience: changes that are very small, but big enough for them (or "Jellyfishes" ) to take a step out of loneliness into a new life.

French-Israeli film "Jellyfish" ("Meduzot") follows the events that happen to three women - Batia (Sarah Alder), a waitress whose boyfriend had just left her, and who meets a strange little girl at seashore; Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), a Filipino nurse and mother who had to leave her boy back in her country, and whose recent job is to accompany Malka (Zaharira Harifai), very difficult old lady; and Keren (Noa Knoller), a bride who had broken her leg at her wedding and whose relationship with her husband Michael (Gera Sandler), it is obvious, is on the rocks, partly because she suspects Michael is attracted to a beautiful, older woman staying at their hotel.

[THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS] You will notice the same leitmotif used in the film's (seemingly) loosely woven stories. The three narratives are only loosely connected, but same images appear repeatedly - ships and water (or sea) most notably, plus shadow of death. Recurrent imagery implies the sense of connection between seeming strangers (compare carefully what Batia and the mysterious little girl do, and try to find the girl's float in Batia`s flashback scenes). Directors Shira Geffen and Etgar Kere concentrate the details associated with the characters they depict, making a frequent use of combinations and contrasts seen in images or characters' slight behaviors in order to tell us about the characters and their development.

Some things remain unexplained. Perhaps they should be so. Some people might say "nothing happens" in this small film. Actually something happens, but too obviously. The direction by Shira Geffen and Etgar Kere at times borders on pretentiousness, but the film's poetic charms remain the same.

'Jellyfish' is set in Tel Aviv and follows several women (a new bride, a wedding caterer, a photographer, and a caregiver) in an intersecting plot, which shows us touching, sad, and humorous moments of their lives. Really a beautiful film. There's a lot of depth of character but the feeling of the movie is always light. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for bonus features on the dvd release.

I found it interesting to see a story set in Tel Aviv that told of the lives of modern Israelis as other than individuals whose daily existences are mired in the shadow of ever-present terrorism and omnipresent political turmoil. Except for the language differences, these people could as easily have been western Europeans or even Americans. There was good acting here, a lot of multi-faceted female characters, and a strong sense of "what next?" that pulled my interest along. What did bother me was the way the story ultimately reminded me so much of the experimental European cinema of past generations in the way it flirted with symbolism and even magic realism (my number one least favorite way to tell a tale). What was left was a movie that was stronger for its visuals and characters than its actual plotlines, and so what might have been a four-star picture became something less in the final tally.

The English title of this excellent movie "Jellyfish" is so much less evocative than the Hebrew "Medusas." A Medusa floats through the sea, its wavy strands of poison trailing around it, buffeted by the waves but still capable of delivering a nasty sting.
In this movie of three interlocking stories, people float through their lives looking for connections. Most of the film is realistic but occasionally it moves into dreamy surreal passages which illuminate the characters' inner dilemmas.
Batya, abandoned as a child by her warring parents, finds it hard to make connections. Her boyfriend leaves and her job as a waitress at a wedding hall mocks her own isolation. One day at the beach, she's approached by an adorable little girl with a red plastic life preservers around her waist. The girl never speaks but seems real. Others can see her too. It's only gradually we learn that she is a representative of Batya herself as a young girl.
Another plot concerns Joy, one of many Philippine women working in Israel looking after old people. She has to take care of an old lady who came from Germany many decades ago and speaks only German and Hebrew, neither of which Joy speaks. The old lady's daughter, who ought to be taking care of her, is too busy pursuing a mediocre career as an actress.
In the third story, a newly-married couple suffers through a honeymoon in a sleazy hotel where everything goes wrong.
This movie has moments of real poetic beauty. In the end, all the various plot strands come together and are in some sense resolved.
Recommended.

There are three female characters in this remarkable movie from Israel. One is a young woman, with dead end job, boyfriend who is leaving her and her irresponsible landlord. Second one is a young bride who has to trade her exotic honeymoon spot for a less than comfortable hotel in Tel Aviv. Third woman is a young mother, immigrant from Phillipinnes, trying to make ends meet in a country where she knows no one and speaks no language.

All three of them have their own destiny, but what they do have in common is that they are facing their internal fear. They are all strong women but detached from the world: emotially and physically. Their families are sort of absent and on another level, this is a story about emotionally absent mothers.

It is a wonderful story with wonderful deep meanings interwoven between characters; their experiences and unintentional overlapping of faiths that they are not even aware of.

We'll watch most things coming out of Israel - it's a small country that definitely punches above its weight in terms of quality cinema. I'll add writer/co-director Shira Geffen's 'Jellyfish' ('Meduzot') to my evolving list of "gotta see" Israeli films. It doesn't come near to topping favorites Walk on Water (or anything from Eytan Fox for that matter - 'Yossi and Jagger' and 'The Bubble'), The Syrian Bride, or Broken Wings, but still - Geffen's subtle intersecting of the tales of three different women (two Israelis, one Filipino guest worker) is very well done.

There's a bit too much magic realism for my taste at the end of the film, but for the most part it's a film with both feet grounded in the realities of every day life struggles in Israel.

I didn't recognize any of the actors from other Israeli films. That's because most of them have the bulk of their experience on the TV side, like Sarah Adler (waitress 'Batya' - one of the three main protagonists), or are newcomers, like Noa Knoller (new bride 'Keren') and Ma-nenita De Latorre (guestworker 'Joy').

Adler is the standout here. She could carry a movie by herself. Beyond her TV experience, her other notable casting was in Jean-Luc Godard's 2004 release Notre Musique.

This film comes closest to mimicing literary poetry of any film I've seen. The subconscious mind is awakened by the imagery. Fantasy intertwines with reality. The banal and the extraordinary power of the human imagination weave together a unique view of the meaning of our lives.

"Jellyfish" (78 min., originally released in Israel in 2007) brings the story of 3 women in contemporary Tel Aviv, with the Mediterranean Sea playing a pivotal role as well in the movie. There are a number of "magical realism", starting with the opening scene, in which a little girl seemingly comes out of the seas, literally. Who is this little girl?

The 3 women that the movie centers on include a young waitress who finds the little girl out of the sea and cares for her for a few days (social services being closed for the weekend), a newlywed who breaks her ankle on her wedding celebration and as a result must celebrate her honeymoon in a hotel in Tel Aviv, and a Filipino "guest worker" who is deparately trying to stay in contact with her young son back home.

The movie zooms along in no time, with its short running time and its dreamy atmosphere. Tel Aviv looks different from what it really looks like. By concidence, I was in Tel Aviv just a few months ago, and the hotel our business delegation was staying at was also located on the beach front of Tel Aviv, so this movie brought back some great memories from that stay. Meanwhile "Jellyfish" is a great movie. Other recent movies out of Israel that I would recommend in a heartbeat include "Or, My Treasure", "Seven Minutes in Heaven", "Lemon Tree", "For My Father" and of course "Lebanon".

If you've never seen a contemporary Israeli film, then "Jellyfish" is a wonderful starting point. It's visual poetry, a weaving together of the stories of a half dozen Israeli women and a few of the men in their lives. While there's very little explicitly religious in the film, it's a deeply spiritual look at what connects us in a joyous and life-giving way -- and what can divide us and leave us drifting like jellyfish in the sea.

As soon as I finished the film for the first time, I went back to the DVD menu and started the film again. That's a strange inclination, but you'll find that this film's poetry calls out to you like a favorite refrain you want to keep singing. This cycle of stories swirls like the waves that wash ashore along the coast of Israel. Visual symbols rise, fall, morph into new forms, rise and fall again -- from the film's opening seconds until its closing scene.

This film is artfully written, directed and edited by husband and wife team Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen. At times, it feels like a Robert Altman ensemble piece, but it's not as elaborately staged and plotted as Altman and, at just over one hour, it's a frothy meditation rather than a ponderous Altman saga.

For instance, you have to chuckle when a weary, stressed-out, middle-aged son tries to explain to his frail mother why he has hired a woman to take care of her during the day, while he is working.

"Save the money for your children!" she chides him.

He sighs. "Mom, I don't have children."

She snaps: "And why not?!"

Sometimes, for all your hard work in caring for other people -- life smacks you like a speeding bus full in the face. And, just when the plot is feeling that way -- a speeding vehicle actually smacks someone in the face. Those are the falling waves in the film. The rising waves are the survivors of such sad moments -- and the unlikely people who help them to survive.

What the film keeps telling us is that, along with all the debris that washes up in our lives, the waves also can bring us unexpected surprises as they ceaselessly roll toward us.

"Why go on living?" one character asks at one point.

The answer comes back: "Maybe because I'll meet someone who'll save me."

And, without spoiling any of the surprises in this joyous little film, I can say this: The people who wash up on shore to save us may not look like anything we expect.

Feeling blue or anxious about the future? Go get a copy of "Jellyfish," sit back -- and plan to watch this film more than once.