Review: ‘Jellyfish’

Jellyfish or Meduzot (Israel title) is the first film from writer/director Shira Geffen. Jellyfish tells the story of three very different women in modern day Tel-Aviv.

The three women begin the film all at a wedding reception. One is a waitress, Batia (Sara Adler), slacker that really hates her job. Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), an elderly care-giver, is a guest at the wedding. Finally there is Keren (Noa Knoller), the bride who breaks her leg escaping a locked bathroom stall at the reception. Reading this you would think Jellyfish a very funny foreign film. Instead it tells a wonderful story of how these women’s live continue to intersect after they leave the party. Batia lives in an apartment that roaches would vacate. She has a mother that cares more for the poor than her own daughter. She finds a mysterious girl wandering the beach that is like looking into her past life. Joy spends her days earning money taking care of the elderly. She is trying to make enough to purchase a pirate ship for her son and bring him to Tel-Aviv to live with her. Finally Keren, high maintenance wife with a cast, begins to unload on her new husband. They move from Hotel to Hotel and room to room because of noises and smells that make Keren a royal pain. These three different directions seem to find a way to intersect over and over again.

Jellyfish is a good story that reminds you of an Israeli look at Life in Tel-Aviv with a “crash” spin on it. The film features a list of Israeli television regulars that tell us a very good story. Unlike with real jellyfish this foreign film doesn’t sting at all and is not fatal to view. Make a trip to your art house theaters and check out Jellyfish.