Tangerines

This film is flawless and one of the highlights of the Montreal World Film Festival 2014. It also was recognized with many international prizes in Europe, North America and even Israel. It captures the incoherence and inhumanity of war from the point of view of innocent civilians and of dehumanized soldiers. The pace and plot are crisp, compact and conscious-elevating with a spectacular, yet simple screenplay. The cinematography and music match and enhance the emotional and philosophical human drama. The acting from the all-male cast is poignant and powerful in its restraint. Zaza Urushadze's text comes to life like a play in this sometimes claustrophobic confine which only heightens the inherent tension between the protagonists. The directing does however balance this with the sad beauty of rural Abkhazia conflict zone. The simple sets set the mood and this movie is shooting for the moon.

Alexander Kuranov returns as the editor after teaming up with Zaza Urushadze for the excellent multiple story Three Houses (2008) and gets every cut and emotion right. The dialogue, like the film, is raw, unpredictable, mysterious and profound. It brings you the very core of humanity's hopes and fears. The theme of pointless war has rarely been portrayed so perfectly. It surpasses even seminal South Korean The Front Line (2011) and does so in a intellectual and emotionally effective way. Beyond that it is a human drama about people stuck in a conflict and how they decide to deal with it and each other. Is there a glimpse of hope or some guidelines we can learn from?

Be sure that I will be looking for Zaza's previous and next work. This is cinema at it's best.

I'm not aware of the political, historical, religious & ethnic differences between the people depicted in the movie, but I can still relate to them. I mean not in the literal sense but just on human level.

I think, almost always, majority of the people who are fighting a war are not personally affected by its cause. It's something that's just inculcated in them. They are taught to hate the opposite side.

This movie, with a handful of characters, in just so little words, in such a short time, makes you realize that you can empathize with anyone. You should just have the will to do so. Humanity is capable of so much love that there can be no place left for hatred, but sadly we're too busy fighting, every day, every where, in one or another part of the world.

This is a captivating movie from the first frame to the last. The background score uplifts and complements the mood of the movie so beautifully. The acting is sublime, the direction is top notch. The story is really simple and all the charm is in the storytelling.

It makes you question yourself. Whatever your hate is, if you can learn to empathize, then you've lived a life.

Zaza Urushadze gives the highest priority to his story. It's a very powerful story carrying a strong antiwar massage. And Urushadze tells it as if he's not there. As if we're watching the actual events taking place before us. This isn't a result of inaptness, this is a deliberate decision to let the story stand in the limelights on its own and avoid anything that could divert the viewers attention from it. You won't find any elaborate shots, any amazing breathtaking sights, no fireworks showing the director's technical mastery. Urushadze tells us about the follies of war and he makes sure that's what we'll get when we see his film. He's aided by superb actors, mainly Lembit Ulfsak playing the strong minded Ivo, a man of few words that makes every word of his count. Reserved, strong willed and determined, a role calling for acting of the highest quality and Lembit Ulfsek is up to the task. In fact there's nothing else to speak about regarding this movie, only the actors, and the director's lean approach to cinematic story telling. Thing is, even when that's all there is if it's done at such level of perfection it's a must see movie.

"What is wrong with you, young men? All the time, I will kill, I will kill... Who gave you the right for that?"

I wasn't familiar with Estonian cinema before Mandariinid (Tangerines), but I will definitely be keeping my eyes open for Zaza Urushadze's upcoming projects because this was a fulfilling experience. I know the Academy doesn't always get it right, but at least it gives me a chance to check out films that I wouldn't have heard of otherwise. Urushadze's greatest strength as a director here comes from focusing on the story, which he also wrote. It is a simple anti-war film with a powerful narrative and strong performances that benefit from an interesting premise. Urushadze doesn't try to astonish the audience with great visuals or overload us with gruesome action scenes like most war films, but rather focuses on the humanity of each character and does so by centering the story in a small local community where only two men remain. He reduces the Civil War taking place in the Apkhazian region and focuses it on how it affects two local Estonians who have decided to stay in their farmland instead of seeking safety back in Estonia. Ivo (Lembit Ulfsak) and Margus (Elmo Nuganen) are neighbors who work together. Margus has a tangerine plantation (which explains the somewhat terrible title) and Ivo is a carpenter who makes the boxes for their transportation so they collaborate together. Since the war broke out, everyone in the land has returned to Estonia, but these two men have decided to stay. Ivo is a determined and wise old man who doesn't take sides in the war. When a conflict breaks out in front of their home, two soldiers are seriously injured and Ivo takes them into his home. The soldiers (Giorgi Nakashidze and Misha Meskhi) are enemies and we are expecting the tension to break out once they fully recover. Ivo knows this, but he also believes he can teach them a lesson through his acts of kindness during this terrible time of war. The film is effective and accomplishes its purpose of delivering its anti-war message by focusing on the humanity of each one of the characters.

Lembit Ulfsak delivers the best performance of the film. He gives a quiet and calmed performance. Despite all the hate and hurtful things the two soldiers say to each other, he is always the voice of reason reminding them that they all share the same land and have equal rights. Ulfsak expresses this inner peacefulness very well from the opening scene in which some local soldiers come searching for food. He is the kind of person that would help anyone, even those that consider him an enemy. Elmo Nuganen is also solid as Margus who has a strong relationship with Ivo and looks up to him. When the two injured soldiers appear at their doorsteps the balance is disrupted and the war comes knocking home. So we clearly see how war takes its toll on everyone, even those who have nothing to do with the fighting, affecting their business and their lifestyle. Giorgi Nakashidze and Misha Meskhi deliver solid roles as these enemies who call a truce out of respect for Ivo while they are in his home. I found the simple premise for this film as a strong way to carry out its message by reducing the big scale of the war to a small local village, but still portraying it as something terrible. Some might consider this too simple of a story or too improbable, but I think it was a quite affecting way to deliver its message. I enjoyed how Zaza Urushadze decided to approach this material and would definitely recommend it.

That's what a nomination from the Oscars can do to a foreign-language film. it can build hype, put them on the spotlight, let so many others see films that might have not otherwise been seen by people who usually don't go out of their way to see foreign films. It's a rather lovely film, despite having subject matter that would be seen as glum or dry. Surely, it's not a "happy" film, but it's lovely in its themes that it reinforces by the end and what it's ultimately trying to tell us. In that way, it succeeds greatly and it offers as a reminder of our own problems and our own flaws, and that humanity, despite so many reasons to not care about others, can prevail in the end and make you really care for someone.