Oscar-shortlisted Tangerines among leaders of Greek box office

A Georgian-directed war-time drama that was shortlisted for an Oscar as the best foreign languge movie is continuing to impress audiences around the world.

Tangerines [Mandarinebi] gained recognition when screened in cinemas throughout the United States and Spain and was now among the top films leading the Greek box office.

Greek movie website FLIX announced the Estonian-Georgian co-production was among the top 10 films recently seen by Greek moviegoers. The war-time drama ranked 6th place behind widely promoted Hollywood films.

According to the website, the movie was screened in 15 cinemas in Athens and in 19 theatres nationwide. From May 28 to June 6, the film sold almost the same number of tickets as the mainstream films on the 5th and 4th positions in the list.

Tangerines was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language film category in this year’s Academy Awards.

The film, directed by Georgian man Zaza Urushadze, centres around an older Estonian man who cares for two wounded soldiers from opposite sides of the 1990-era war in Georgia.

Tangerines was co-produced by Estonian film production company Allfilm and Georgian production company Cinema 24. As well as directing, Urushadze jointly produced the film with Ivo Felt. The cast included Lembit Ulfsak, Elmo Nuganen, Mikhail Meskhi, Giorgi Nakashidze, Raivo Trass and Zurab Bealishvili.

Since its release the film has won awards at the Warsaw, Mannheim-Heidelberg, Palm Springs and Seattle film festivals.