It’s 1992 and war has come to Abkhazia, but that won’t shift Ivo (Lembit Ulfsaf) who has chosen to stay, making boxes for the tangerines harvested by his neighbour Margus (Elmo Nuganen).

The core drama kicks off following a nearby battle between Georgian soldiers and the Abkhazian separatists. Two wounded survivors, one from each faction, end up taking shelter with the unshakable Ivo.

Ahmed (Giorgi Nakhashidze), a furious Chechen, still seems intent on doing away with Niko (Mikheil Meskhi), the Georgian, but our hero manages to convince them to suspend hostilities while under his protection. Various allegorical tensions simmer while Ivo goes about his ancient business. As the war impinges, the tense conversations over cups of tea give way to bursts of action.

Estonia deservedly secured its first Oscar nomination for this consistently humane war drama. Tangerines' central plea – why can't we all just get along? – is hardly novel, and the plot relies on more convenience and contrivance than we might wish. But, for all that, Tangerines manages to achieve a kind of stubborn grace.

The actors deliver the finely balanced dialogue with a sincerity that kicks aside all intimations of banality. Rein Kotov’s cinematography is alive to rich landscape and richer faces.

Zaza Urushadze's feature fits into a tradition of antiwar narratives that stretches through Frank O'Connor's Guests of the Nation back to RC Sherriff's Journey's End. Like those pieces, Tangerines is intent on locating the personal tragedies in political conflict. The film also carries traces of the rural folk cinema that attracts the eye of Academy voters when polling day looms.

Those faultless performances make something special of the material. Many will find it disconcerting to be reminded of the many conflicts (some now forgotten outside the former war zones) that blew up following the fall of the Soviet empire. Worth cherishing.