Powerful, heartbreaking cinematic portrayals of the sheer idiocy of war were relevant back in 1930, when ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT, based on the Erich Maria Remarque novel, was the year’s Best Picture Academy Award winner. They were relevant in 1957, when Kirk Douglas and Stanley Kubrick collaborated on PATHS OF GLORY, another landmark anti-war film. They were relevant in 2001, when DanisTanovic’s NO MAN’S LAND earned the Best Foreign Film Oscar.
Films with anti-war agendas are just as meaningful today. One example is the quietly powerful TANGERINE, a film from Estonia that earned a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination last year and now is new to home entertainment. This film, directed by Georgia-born filmmaker Zaza Urushadze, is as equally poignant as any of its predecessors.
TANGERINES is set in 1992, when Georgian government forces and Abkhazia separatists were facing off in a violent, bloody conflict. The story centers around two men who have remained in their rural village, whose other residents have fled to safety. One is Ivo, a simple, peaceful, wise elder who constructs crates to be used for transporting the tangerines that are grown by his friend Margus. The two have stayed behind to harvest the tangerine crop but, of course, violence and bloodshed are at their doorstep.
As the story develops, Ivo ends up with two wounded “house guests” who are on opposite sides of the conflict. One is Nika, who is severely incapacitated by a shell fragment lodged in his head. The other is Ahmed, a soldier-mercenary whose injuries are not as severe. But the bottom line is that both men are adversaries in war, and both men are determined to kill each other.
Conversely, politics and disputes mean nothing to Ivo, who nurses both men back to health. He will look after anyone who needs him, and Nika and Ahmed respect Ivo for saving their lives. Yet will they come to see each other as human beings, rather than as political and ethnic adversaries? Can they sit at the same table and drink tea without spewing forth anger and hatred? In one of the film’s key scenes, as Nika and Ahmed profess their desire to obliterate each other, Ivo asks: “Who gave you that right? Who?” He refers to the men as “children of death” and adds: “Why does it matter where you kill each other, here or (back on the battlefield)? You’ll recover, go back to the front, and kill there.” For after all, such is the nature of war. But Ivo’s point is well-taken: Why do men despise each other? Wouldn’t they be far better off if they befriended each other and accepted-- and perhaps even learned from-- their differences?
While watching the film, I was wondering about the choice to title it TANGERINES. Then it dawned on me: The title fruit serves as a symbol for what the world should be like. A farmer grows tangerines that are tasty and healthy. All the world can enjoy them-- and these include all individuals, whatever their religions, ethnicities, or countries-of-origin. But sadly, the world in which we live is not that trouble-free, and not that sweet. This is one of the sad ironies that is expressed so poignantly in TANGERINES.
Rob Edelman teaches film history at the University at Albany. He has written several books on film and television, and is an associate editor of Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide.
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