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Morality play leaves 'Tangerine' viewers wanting more

<b>Mini-review: 'Tangerines'</b>

I felt a little bit cheated at the end of Zaza Urushadze's drama "Tangerines," a nominee for this year's Best Foreign Language Academy Award.

I wanted to know what happens after Urushadze's drama ends, what impact, if any, that the noble humanity of a simple Estonian farmer had on a Chechen mercenary named Ahmed (Giorgi Nakashidze).

Urushadze's small-scale production - it could easily be translated into a one-set stage show - takes place in war-torn Abkhazia during 1992, a volatile time soon after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

Aging farmer Ivo (Lembit Ulfsak) and his neighbor Margus (Elmo Nuganen) harvest his annual tangerine crop amid the conflict.

Then, a battle outside their front door kills several soldiers, but two - Ahmed and Georgian fighter Nika (Mikhail Meskhi) - survive. Ivo takes them both into his house and nurses them to health, even though each soldier swears he will kill the other the moment he leaves the kind farmer's home.

They never quite get around to it, of course, because their convalescence gives them time and opportunity to see the human beings beneath their political labels.

Urushadze gently guides the slow ascension of the soldiers into a higher consciousness. If some of the lessons to be learned seem a bit blunt, that's OK. The quartet of actors levels out the messages in meaningful measures.

The ever-present fruit reminds us of the earth's bounty for those who recognize it, even among the warring factions who don't.

"Tangerines" offers a relatively quiet reflection on the important elements in life (photos of Ivo's family become a constant conversational topic for the soldiers).

But the movie feels like the first two acts in a morality play, and I want to see the third, the one where we see what fruit is truly born of the seeds of peace and trust that a simple Estonian farmer planted in the souls of two hardened enemies.

"Tangerines" opens at the Century Centre in Chicago and the Renaissance Place in Highland Park. In Estonian, Russian and Georgian with subtitles. Not rated. 87 minutes. ★ ★ ★

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