The Oscar-nominated short film The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent has been struck by tragedy on the eve of the Academy Awards.
Darko Buzov, the son of the Croatian man whose heroic true story inspired the film, and who was himself an important force behind the film’s creation, died suddenly of a heart attack aged 52 on Saturday (1 March).
He was the son of Tomo Buzov, a man who stood up for Bosnian Muslims during the civil war in what was then Yugoslavia. He had been riding a train through eastern Bosnia on 27 February 1993, when members of a pro-Serbian militia boarded began pulling Bosnian Muslims from the train to execute them.
When the militia members reached Tomo’s compartment, he stood up instead, and refused to back down. Eighteen Bosnian Muslim men were executed on the day, alongside Tomo.
His son’s death came on the 32nd anniversary of his father’s actions.
The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent re-tells the story of the incident, with Tomo played by actor Dragan Mićanović. The other passengers are fictionalised creations, based on actual court transcripts.
“I read more than a thousand pages of different documents of interviews with people who were on that train,” writer-director Nebojša Slijepčević said. “I read testimonies from the trial – because one of the killers from the train was caught back in Nineties and he was put on trial. So, there were firsthand testimonies by many people who lost their relatives or were just passengers on the train.
“The script is fictionalised in a way; the Tomo Buzov character is real, but the other characters are not real but are inspired by real experiences of the people from the train. And most of the lines that are spoken in the film I have found in these transcripts.”
In an interview with Deadline, Slijepčević credited Buzov’s approval with the film’s existence.
“I wrote him that we want to make a film where an actor will play the role of his father,” he said. “He was very generous… He offered his help, and it was very important for me. Without his permission, I’m 100 per cent sure that we would not make this film.”
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