Like Joyeux Noël (2005), The Last Samurai (2003), and The Pianist (2002), Tangerines is a war film about enemy soldiers who become friends after they are forced to interact with one another. The point is to highlight the various reasons why people fight, and then to show why these reasons are inadequate. [...] The film is a passionate plea for diplomacy and coexistence. Urushadze creates a cinematic world where enemy soldiers can lay down their weapons and have a conversation.

In Georgia, it's called the fall of Sukhumi. In Abkhazia, it's called the liberation of Sukhum. Whatever it's called, it happened 20 years ago, and that's about the only thing that Georgians and Abkhaz can agree on. On Sept. 27, Georgian government officials commemorated the day at Hero's Memorial, where the government of the autonomous republic of Abkhazia in exile called for a new strategy to solve the Abkhaz conflict and expressed hope that "historical justice will be restored and that Abkhaz and Georgian people will live in peace."