

Title: Tangerines

MPAA Rating: Unrated

Director: Zaza Urushadze

Starring: Lembit Ulfsak, Elmo Nuganen, Giorgi Nakshadze

Runtime: 1 hr 27 mins



What It Is: Georgia (the country not the state) in 1990 is war-torn and under evacuation. Ivo, an old man has stayed behind to harvest his crop of tangerines. As he stays behind he is one of only two Estonians not to go back to their homeland. He is accosted by some soldiers, whom he feeds before they leave. Moments after they disperse from his home they are attacked. Ivo then rescues one of the soldiers he just fed, and another soldier from the other side of the conflict. Now Ivo has two soldiers from the two sides of a bloody conflict under the same roof.

What We Think: Most of this film takes place in the same space, and the story they’ve crafted is just great. Sometimes gut-wrenching sometimes hopeful it’s a war story that is anti-war. It knows what it’s message is, and never does it wavering, or pander to a different sensibility. Lembit Ulfsak is a legend in his home country and here he gets a platform to show what we’ve missed here. He brings so much to the film, and what that is is gravitas. Ivo isn’t scared of anything in the war wrought land he’s in, and the only guys scared here are the wounded soldiers he’s saving.

Our Grade: C-, If it weren’t for a overly deliberate pace, which is far too slow this story could have moved along smoother. It tells a story you’d never hear of otherwise. It’s an anti-war sentiment told in a much more subtle way then that of how we do it here in the states. Urushadze puts together a film that is poignant, lovely, and an eyeopener on the conflict of post soviet eastern Europe.