Starring Sarah Adler and Noa Knoller. In English, Hebrew, German, and Tagalog with English subtitles. Rated PG. Opens Friday, September 5, at the Fifth Avenue Cinemas

The people floating through this sublime new Israeli film, which won the Camera d’Or at Cannes this year, are tossed by the currents of existence. And they do occasionally sting.

Jellyfish’s overlapping tales centre on one beachfront neighbourhood of Tel Aviv, where a sad-faced young woman (Sarah Adler) barely copes with an absent boyfriend, a leaky ceiling, a crummy catering gig, and deep-seated abandonment issues. The fact that her mother is a highly visible advocate for “those less fortunate” doesn’t seem to help.

So when, by the ocean, she bumps into a tiny girl (Nikol Leidman)—lost, mute, and wearing a red-and-white inner tube—she is ill-equipped to provide even temporary care.

Care is what Filipina guest worker Joy (stoical Ma-nenita De Latorre) is expected to offer a series of elderly Israelis, although she speaks no Hebrew and is clearly pining for her own son back home. She is similarly lost when tasked to look after an especially cranky old lady (Zaharira Harifai) whose actor daughter is too busy to pick her up at the hospital.

A third set of strugglers only shows up in a shabby Tel Aviv hotel because their Caribbean honeymoon is cancelled when the pretty bride (Noa Knoller) gets hurt at her wedding to a friendly Russian expat (Gera Sandler), who quickly discovers just what a miserable patient she is.

After they swap rooms with a supposed poet upstairs, things take a different turn. However, events in this lyrical movie—which crams a lot into its smooth 78 minutes—have more to do with mixed feelings and fleeting memories than outward actions.

The writing, from Shira Geffen, who codirected with her husband, Etgar Keret, is smart and funny. The images of ships, water, and isolation might seem obvious, but Jellyfish is full of twisted surprises. Here, at least, life is definitely a beach.