Film Review: Jellyfish
Jellyfish (Etgar Keret and Shira Gefen, 2007)
In Hebrew (and Tagalog, in some scenes) with English subtitles
This movie won a special award at Cannes
Film Festival in 2007. This was the reason I watched the movie, otherwise, I
wouldn't have known the film even existed. The
movie is a brief tale of intersecting lives of three women in Tel
Aviv. Batya, a waitress, has been recently dumped by his boyfriend. One
day, as she aimlessly passes time on the beach, she finds a mute little girl
who refuses to be separated from the flotation device around her
waist. Keren is newly-wed. She breaks her ankle in a very peculiar
accident during the after-wedding festivities. The newlyweds' planned honeymoon
in a cruise is stalled. They end up trapped in a metaphoric hotel near the
sea. The third character is Joy, a caregiver from the Philippines. She
tries vainly in communicating with the old woman under her care. She only knows
English and a little Hebrew. She is often seen telephoning her son she left
behind in the Philippines. (By the way, the actress who portrayed Joy -
Ma-nenita De Latorre - is a real caregiver working in Tel Aviv. She auditioned
for the role.)
The title
"Jellyfish" is a metaphor. These women seem like floating aimlessly,
and without resistance to where they are taken. I notice that all of these
characters have difficulty to communicate with people that matter to them. Some
scenes are visual poetry, suggestive of magical realism.
This poem written by one
of the supporting characters is interesting, it somehow summarizes the movie:
A ship inside a bottle cannot sink, or
collect dust. Its nice to look at and float on glass. No one is small enough to
board it. It doesn't know where it's heading. The wind outside won't blow its
sails. It has no sails, only a slip, a dress. And beneath them, a jellyfish.
Her mouth is dry though she's surrounded by water. She drinks it through the
openings of her eyes which never close. When she dies it won't be noticeable.
She won't crash on rocks. She will remain tall... and proud.
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