THE WORLD IS FUNNY (Haolam Mats'hik) B
Israel (122 mi)
2012 d: Shemi Zarhin
Damned if I know, the
world is funny so I laugh.
—Gashash, Israeli comedy trio
One of the more convoluted narratives you’ll ever find at
the movies, where the film itself is an amusing play on language and culture,
weaving together various strands of people’s lives, utilizing twenty or more
characters, all of whom are missing something essential. The director is also a novelist and
accomplished screenwriter, digging into Israeli culture to examine the
influence of the comedy trio Gashash, the most influential comedy act in the
history of Israel, suggesting comedy is a an outlet for dealing with the
anxiety of living in the Middle East. Shot
in Tiberias, a town in the northern region known for always being sunny,
constantly referenced by the comedy trio, where Golan (Eli Finish) runs a radio
show that pays tribute to the Gashash, doing bits and pieces of their act on
the air as he broadcasts classic skits that are filled with clever, rapidfire
wordplay. Assisting him on the show is Zafi
(Naama Shitrit), as both of them know the skits inside and out, where she also becomes
the film’s central narrator, participating in a writing workshop at the town
library, which is a wonderfully inventive device, where she is renowned for
devising stories with no end. Without
any real narrative, Zarhin instead mixes together vignettes, flashbacks, oral
stories, and parts of people’s lives as the connecting tissue of the film,
where much of this seems to connect a single family together, several of whom
haven’t seen or spoken together in nearly a decade.
Yardena (Assi Levi) works at a travel agency and is shocked
to discover she’s pregnant, as she hasn’t had sex with her husband since the
death of their daughter while serving in the army several years earlier, becoming
consumed with the possibilities of who may have impregnated her without her
knowledge. Meron (Dani Shteg) lost his
wife in a terrible car accident 8 years ago, while his older son Nessi (Moshe
Ashkenazi) has been in a coma since the accident, but is starting to come awake
for brief periods, which is something of a miracle, but when he fully awakes he
still has the mental capacity of a ten year old. The aforementioned Golan is wholeheartedly in
love with Natasha, Ola Schor, and wants to marry her but she is dying from a
mostly untreatable form of cancer that leaves he subject to violent outbursts. Golan has given her the complete set of
Gashash comedy on DVD’s, which she watches on her computer from her hospital
bed, promising to reunite the group for their wedding, as they retired after
the death of one of the trio. Golan
actually meets several times with Shaike, an original member, suggesting he
knows the skits so well that he could play the missing member’s part, but
Shaike reveals it’s impossible, a term Golan refuses to comprehend when
speaking of his fiancé.
This original often hilarious film is expressed through a
heartwarming intimacy, where Zafi literally wanders in and out of people’s
lives as a cleaning lady, where her real passion is listening to people’s
stories, discovering the things they keep secret or the habits that define
them, which she reiterates in the writing workshops, which we learn is a forum
for damaged people, where over time secrets are revealed for several of the
members, while the others remain a mystery.
The film earned 15 Israeli Ophir nominations, the equivalent of Academy
Awards, though garnered no wins, as this evocative work may prove to be too
difficult for some to follow, though it moves effortlessly between humor and
tragedy, most always striking a balance through a quirky, continuously
energized script. The use of locations
is excellent, the characters deftly realized, where the viewers are sure to
experience real passions from the intense personal drama taking place onscreen,
as this strange mix is really unlike other films, using a constantly evolving,
somewhat experimental narrative, where it often feels like the director is
toying with the idea of how to present the material, especially the way the
lives are interconnected and eventually come together. As an expression of healing the film is profoundly
moving, with likable characters sharing a curiosity about the world around
them, especially Nessi, whose wild-eyed innocence becomes synonymous with renewed
life or rebirth, like Yardena’s curiously unexplained pregnancy (or Immaculate
Conception), a curious plot device in an Israeli film. With so many tragic undertones, the film relies
upon with the use of humor in the shifting narratives, moving from past to
present, becoming overcomplicated with so many characters and a bit absurd at
times, but ultimately it’s a clever treatise that incorporates death and tragedy
into the multi-layered fabric of the living.
