Tangerines

A war film set in the Caucasus. The year is 1992. Fighting is going on in Abkhazia and the Estonian villages of the region are empty; everyone has gone home. Two people have stayed. Ivo is an old carpenter making crates; his neighbour Margus wants to bring in his tangerine crop. The harvest is ready and they will not leave it. There is a firefight in front of the house. Some are killed, two are wounded, and they are from opposite sides: one a Chechen mercenary, the other a Georgian soldier. Ivo takes them both in. From there the film takes place in one house. The two men recover and want to kill each other; Ivo sets a rule: no blood in this house. What the narrative is interested in is not war but proximity: the two eat at the same table, sleep in the same room, and keeping the hatred up becomes steadily harder. Nobody changes their opinions; they simply come to know each other. There is also a question: why did Ivo stay. The answer comes toward the end and carries the whole weight of the film. It is an Estonian and Georgian co-production and one of very few films either country has made about that war. Lembit Ulfsak plays Ivo. Giorgi Nakashidze, Elmo Nüganen and Misha Meskhi are in the cast. Zaza Urushadze wrote and directed. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for best film in a foreign language. Who it is for: anyone who likes small-scale war drama set in one place. Who it is not for: anyone expecting action; the narrative is built almost entirely on talk and waiting.