Jellyfish

To their great credit, husband-wife duo Keret and Geffen’s quirky tangle of Tel-Aviv tales avoids the affectations that might have sunk it. Just parted from her boyfriend and neglected by her self-absorbed parents, twentysomething Batya finds a strange, silent five-year-old girl on the beach; honeymooning in a local hotel having broken her leg, Keren and husband Michael meet an enigmatic female guest; while Filipina caregiver Joy, missing her small son back home, struggles to communicate with her grouchy German charge. With the sea a recurring image, these intertwining, tragic-comic stories of characters adrift are buoyed by moments of magical realism, all the more effective for washing up matter-of-factly in the pleasantly whimsical tide. Only occasionally drifting into cliché, this is keenly constructed, visually astute work, which scooped the Caméra d’Or at Cannes.