Tangerines

Tangerines is the fifth and last of last year's nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and I just might think it's the best. It is a tale of war that could have been set in any war, but happens to be about the George-Abkhazia War of 1992-93. What it tells us is that war is stupid and futile, no matter where it's fought.

It seems that a great number of Estonians (the film is an Estonian production, though shot in Georgia) settled in Georgia. When the war broke out, they returned to their home country. There are a few holdouts, namely Ivo (Lembi Ulfsak), a gaunt old man who makes crates in a partnership with his neighbor (Elmo Nuganen), who has a tangerine orchard. One day a skirmish occurs right in Nuganen's front yard. There are two survivors: a Chechen mercenary (Giorgi Nakashidze) and a Georgian (Mikhail Meshki). Ulfsak takes them both in.

Nakashidze, the lesser hurt, swears he will kill Meshki because he killed his friend. Ulfsak gets him to promise, on his honor, that he will not kill the man under his roof, and Nakadshidze agrees. Whem Meshki comes to after a bad head wound, he also agrees, but the tension is understandably thick as they try to live peacefully under this agreement.

Of course, when enemies are forced to confront each other and see each other as individuals, profound changes occur. Perhaps that is naive, but in a war like this one, which was basically over land, shooting at each other seems awfully silly. It is a movie, though, so I knew something had to give, and I was surprised but satisfied with how it turned out.

On the surface Tangerines, written and directed by Zaza Urushadze, is simple, but the message runs deep. It is a spare, gripping film, full of humanity but understanding the dark side of man. It is both hopeful and tragic.

I liked all five of the nominees this past year, and Ida was a worthy winner, but I might have cast my vote for Tangerines because it moved me just a bit more. But I don't have a vote and likely never will.