Georgian film director Zaza Urushadze known internationally for his film Tangerines passed away on December 7th, reportedly of heart attack, according to local news sites. He was 53.

The Georgian war time drama Tangerines (Mandarinebi) was submitted by Estonia for the Best Foreign-Language Film at the 2015 Academy Awards.

Set in the early 1990s, the film followed two elderly ethnic Estonian neighbors 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.

His recent film The Confession is about a priest and his relationship with a beautiful local woman in a small village community, who forces him to re-evaluate his vows.