Assi Dayan, Bruria Albek, Ilanit Ben-Yaakov

Three very different women live in modern Tel Aviv, Israel. Batya, a catering waitress, takes in a child apparently abandoned at a local beach. Batya is one of the servers at the wedding reception of ...( read more  read more... )Keren, a bride who breaks her leg escaping a locked toilet stall, ruining her chance at a dream Caribbean honeymoon. And attending the event with an employer is Joy, a non Hebrew-speaking domestic worker who has guiltily left her son behind in her native Philippines. As this distaff trio separately wends their way through Israel's most cosmopolitan city, they struggle with issues of communication, affection and destiny--but at times find uneasy refuge in its tranquil seas.

Flixster Users

78% liked it

1,730 ratings

Critics

87% liked it

54 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 18 min.

Directed by: Etgar Keret, Shira Geffen

Release Date: April 4, 2008

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DVD Release Date: September 30, 2008

Stats: 184 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (184)


  • October 29, 2009
    A very fine film co-directed by one of Israel's most compellingly offbeat writers, Etgar Keret (whom I met once, actually). Despite a few clichés here and there, this is overall a quite enthralling work. And it's great to see veteran Israeli actors Assi Dayan and (especially welc...( read more)ome) Zaharira Harifai.
  • September 25, 2009
    Excellent from A to Z. It made me want to visit Tel Aviv even more. See it and you won't regret it.
  • May 24, 2009
    Brilliant Movie... very good photography,much of the scenes look like very contemporary art photography.. loved it.
  • April 25, 2008
    This is on the best foreign films I have seen this spring.

    The kind of magical realism we see in the Israeli indie effort "Jellyfish" is a tricky business; if poorly handled, it's contrived and saccharine. This comedy-drama has whimsical moments, but through adroit direction it ...( read more)avoids these pitfalls. By the end it's clear that serious issues are in play.

    Created by the husband-and-wife team of Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen ("Wristcutters: A Love Story" I loved the first film from the team), the movie, which won the Camera d'Or last year at Cannes, crosscuts the stories of three Tel Aviv women struggling in various ways, some of them comical. All are looking for harmony in their lives, and eventually their paths intersect.

    Batya (Sarah Adler) is a dejected young woman who works for a nasty boss at a catering company and has just broken up with her boyfriend. Her mother, a distant figure, is a celebrity involved in national fundraising efforts. Joy (Ma-nenita De Latorre), a Filipina caregiver who doesn't speak Hebrew, juggles unpleasant clients and yearns for the small son she left back home. Newly married Keren (Noa Knoller) injures herself at her own wedding party, so she and her husband (Gera Sandler) are forced to switch their honeymoon from a Caribbean resort to a rundown Tel Aviv beach hotel.

    The filmmakers throw a challenge at each woman. Batya becomes responsible for an impish 5-year-old (Nicole Leidman) who mysteriously appears on the beach, wearing only a bikini bottom and a flotation ring. Joy is hired to take care of an especially crabby old German woman who has issues with her daughter, an avant-garde actress. And Keren's husband meets an attractive female writer at the hotel.

    All this sounds glum, but there's more to these lives than just the obvious disappointments. For instance, the little girl (and there's just a hint that she might be imaginary) gives Batya a vicarious chance at a somewhat happier childhood. There's a mildly surreal air about many of the events, some nice comic moments and even a slapstick bit or two.

    Vince
    Vmedia berkeley Ca.

Critic Reviews


May 23, 2008
Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer

A little piece of cinematic poetry. full review

May 16, 2008
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

A brief, haunting tale of three women in contemporary Tel Aviv, Jellyfish seems to float in its viewers' consciousness; you'll remember its images long afterward. full review

May 16, 2008
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

These stories have as their justification that fact that they are intrinsically interesting. I think that's enough. full review

April 25, 2008
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen have made a mysterious film, full of existential anxiety, in which lonely people, all connected to the sea, find ways to repair their lives. full review

April 4, 2008
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Jellyfish is the kind of movie in which the accidental connections between lonely city dwellers are given a magical glow of serendipity.

View more Meduzot (Jellyfish) reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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