Genre: Drama
Director: Zaza Urushadze
Plot: During the Abkhazian War in 1992-1993, an Estonian man takes in two wounded men, each from an opposing side and nurses back to health while trying to keep them from killing each other.
The gist: Tangerines is an Estonian film that received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 2015. It is yet another fine example of European cinema that favours a quiet approach over Hollywood's loud and word heavy style.
The film is set in Georgia during the Abkhazian War in early 1990s. The war between Chechens and Georgians has forced everyone from a tiny Estonian village to flee, except two men: Ivo and Margus. Margus owns a tangerine orchard which he plans on harvesting before leaving to get away from the fighting. Ivo is a carpenter who builds the crates to put the tangerines in.
One night, a fight takes place at the village and the two men rescue Ahmed, a Chechen soldier who is badly wounded. Later, they rescue a Georgian soldier, Nika and Ivo puts them both under his roof to nurse them back to health. The two soldiers naturally despise each other and want nothing more than to kill one another, but Ivo forbids them to do so as long as they are in his home.
Director Zaza Urushadze, who also wrote the script, keeps things simple in his execution of the film. The runtime is pretty short too (87 minutes), but he manages to convey his message, which is even enemies can respect each other during a war, and that people can learn positive values from the unlikeliest places.
The good: Lembit Ulfsak is excellent as the man of peace, Ivo, who has every reason to leave the village or ignore the plight of the two soldiers, but does not. I also liked Zaza's pacing of the film and how he keeps things moving, despite only putting in one shootout sequence towards the end.
The bad: The short runtime works, but it disallows a background exploration of the two soldiers, which would make things more interesting. It sort of made me feel that the two men made peace with one another a bit too easily.
Verdict: Tangerines is a good anti-war film that promotes the message of treating others, including our bitter enemies, as human beings. Worth checking out. (7/10)
