The World Is Funny

Roni leads the adult writing workshop in the public library and embodies a quiet, observant resilience. His home water supply is repeatedly cut off, forcing him to navigate daily inconveniences and lean on his neighbor across the hall, a detail that grounds the ensemble’s stories. He acts as a patient facilitator, anchoring conversations and guiding characters toward meaning through shared creative practice.

Yardena is a recently divorced survivor of loss who discovers she is pregnant after years without intimacy. She is the eldest of three siblings, and her quiet strength anchors the neighborhood’s calmer heartbeat. Her vulnerability—balancing grief and new life—grounds the film’s emotional core and connects the adults’ lives through care.

Meiron is Yardena’s brother, a stern and sometimes cruel-appearing father to Chilik and Nesi. His rough edges are a mask for the heavy burdens he has carried, and the film uses him to illuminate fragility beneath toughness rather than to demonize him. He acts as a protective, if complicated, patriarch within the household.

Chilik is a seventeen-year-old navigating adolescence in the shadow of trauma. His tension with Meiron and his own coming-of-age arc provide a counterpoint to Yardena’s vulnerability and Nesi’s return. He signals the possibility of growth even within a fraught family dynamic.

Nesi is nineteen and has just woken from a nine-year coma caused by the same car accident that claimed his mother. His return unsettles the family, reawakening old questions and loyalties as they navigate care, memory, and the search for a place in the renewed household.

Golan is Yardena’s younger brother who loves Natasha and seeks to honor her through a tribute performance by Shaike Levi. He combines tenderness with stubbornness, acting as a driving force for devotion and a quiet catalyst for healing within the family and neighborhood.

Natasha is undergoing cancer treatment, a presence that embodies tenderness and frustration within the family circle. Her mood swings reflect the emotional turbulence of illness, while her devotion to hope—embodied by the planned tribute—tests relationships and offers a quiet measure of resilience.

Tsafi is a young woman from wealth who cleans the houses of the others, acting as a crucial link between the affluent and working-class corners of the building. Her presence emphasizes duty, dignity, and the surprising ways people contribute to daily life without obvious material need.