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In the Oscar-nominated live action short The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, actor Goran Bogdan plays Dragan, a man facing a crucial moral choice – when he sees a grave injustice about to happen, should he stand up for what’s right, or keep quiet?

The action takes place in 1993 as a train bound from the Serbian capital makes its way into Bosnian territory during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. The railcars come to a sudden stop and Serbian paramilitary troops board the train, intending to grab Bosnian Muslim passengers. Dragan, as a Christian, has nothing to worry about, but across from him sits a young Bosnian Muslim man whose life could be in great peril.

Actor Goran Bogdan (center) in ‘The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent.’ At right is actor Silvio Mumelas, who plays a young Bosnian Muslim man

The camera keeps tight on Dragan as...

When Tomo Buzov boarded a train in Belgrade, Serbia the morning of February 27, 1993, on his way to visit his son in Montenegro, he had no way of knowing what lay in store for him or that his bravery would be remembered to this day.

As the train wound through newly independent Bosnia, it came to a sudden halt and was boarded by members of a Serbian militia. Heavily armed men went car by car demanding to know the ethnicity and religious identity of everyone on board.

The Oscar-contending drama The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent retells what happened on that train as war flared in the former Yugoslavia and old grievances fueled new atrocities. The film directed by Nebojša Slijepčević won the Palme d’Or for Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Director Nebojša Slijepčević

“This film is based on a real event,” Slijepčević explained during...

Goran Bogdan, centre, and Silvio Mumelaš in The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent. Nebojša Slijepčević: 'I wanted the audience to think that they are following the hero because we all love to identify with heroes in the film' Croatian director Nebojša Slijepčević’s tense and polished The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, won the short film Palme d’Or in Cannes last week. Set in 1993, it relates the true story of Tomo Buzov, one of those people who commit a remarkable act of heroism that can often be overlooked by history in events running up to the Štrpci massacre. His drama unfolds on a train after it is stopped by paramilitaries with murder in mind. As the occupants of a single carriage consider their response, Slijepčević also, by extension, asks us what we might do in their place. We caught up with the director after his Cannes...