Georgian film Tangerines wins Audience Award at Egypt film event

Georgian film Tangerines wins Audience Award at Egypt film event.
Agenda.ge, 04 Dec 2014 - 18:40, Tbilisi,Georgia

A Georgian movie is gaining recognition from a wider audience after receiving a top award at the Panorama of the European Film in Cairo, Egypt.

Georgian war-time drama Tangerines (Mandarinebi) won the Audience Award at the 7th Panorama of the European Film last week. The annual event showcased award-winning feature and documentary productions from across Europe.

Tangerines, by Georgian director Zaza Urushadze is the first Georgian-Estonian co-production and was nominated by Estonia as an entrant in the Best Foreign Language Film Award category at the next year’s prestigious Academy Awards ceremony, which was rebranded the Oscars in 2013.

Last month the Hollywood Reporter called the film "one of the strongest contenders” in that category.

The film was set in the early 1990s and followed two elderly ethnic Estonian neighbours who find themselves caught up in a bitter civil war in the country's Abkhazia region, just as their orchards are ready to be harvested.

One of the men, Ivo, finds two survivors on the battlefield - a wounded Caucasian man and a wounded Georgian. The tangerine harvesters now must resolve their own war which is developing under their roof with enemies from both sides.

The Georgia-Estonia creation has become one of the most internationally successful films since its release last year.

Tangerines has participated in 28 international film festivals and won 18 awards, including top prizes at the Warsaw International Film Festival 2013, the Seattle International Film Festival 2014 and the BIFEST - Bari International Film Festival 2014.

Watch the film trailer below: