Latest news with #TheManWhoCouldNotRemainSilent
Jordan Times
26-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Jordan Times
Croatia's Palme d'Or Nebojsa Slijepcevic: tackling weighty social issues
ZAGREB — From the dark shadows still cast by the wars that accompanied Yugoslavia's collapse to social exclusion, Croatian film director Nebojsa Slijepcevic is not afraid to shy away from weighty subjects. Slijepcevic became Croatia's first ever Palme d'Or winner -- and achieved global acclaim -- when his "The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent" premiered at the Cannes film festival last year. The short film, which depicts a war crime in Bosnia, was also shortlisted at this year's Oscars and has won a dozen other awards, including a French Cesar and a European Academy prize. "It was a surprise indeed... it became one the most successful short movies in history considering the number of awards," Zagreb-born Slijepcevic told AFP. The film depicts a real-life event from February 27, 1993 when Serb paramilitaries stopped a passenger train in Strpci, a village in eastern Bosnia. Nineteen Muslim civilians from Serbia and Montenegro were kidnapped and later killed. Of the around 500 passengers, retired Yugoslav army officer Tomo Buzov, who was travelling to visit his son, was the only one who stood up to paramilitaries. Buzov, an ethnic Croat, was taken along with the others. His remains, like those of most the victims, were never found. - 'Resisting violence' - Slijepcevic said although the film is about an atrocity committed in Bosnia in 1993, the situation is "universal, out of time and space". "It talks about something that happens very often to us both as individuals and societies... being in a position to witness injustice or violence, as some sort of observers who seemingly can afford to pretend not seeing it, that it doesn't concern us," he said. The movie pays respect to an unusually brave man, who was motivated by a human desire to defend innocent people armed with only his words, the 52-year-old director said. Buzov's family lives in the Serbian capital Belgrade and he sought their approval before making the film. Mild-mannered Slijepcevic, who describes himself as an introvert, said the movie's success was also due to the current global political turmoil. "It is about resistance to violence. The world is much more violent today than it was when I wrote the script, the violence is increasingly showing that it could change the world forever," he said. "Global events were in favour of the success of my film. Unfortunately. It's really sad, I don't triumph over it at all," he added. - Social exclusion - Slijepcevic said that when he chooses a subject to tackle, it has to resonate with him emotionally and have social significance. "It seems completely pointless to make something as expensive and as massive as a film about socially insignificant topics," he added. Two award-winning documentaries that he made -- "Gangster of Love" (2013) and "Srbenka" (2018) -- address social exclusion of people considered "different", notably on ethnic grounds. "Gangster of Love", about a matchmaker trying in vain to help a Bulgarian single mother find a husband in Croatia, portrays a conservative society in a humorous but also complex way. In rural parts of staunchly Catholic Croatia, men prefer to stay single rather than marry a foreign national with a child. "Srbenka" highlights Croatia's still-tense inter-ethnic relations after the 1990s independence war against rebel Serbs. The documentary originated from a theatre play set against the backdrop of the war. The play focused on the true story of a 12-year-old ethnic Serb girl, executed in cold blood at the start of the war, in one of the most gruesome crimes committed by Croatian forces during the conflict. More than two decades on from the war, a young Croatian girl acting in the play is filled with fear after learning that she is an ethnic Serb. Slijepcevic is currently working on a feature film, an adaptation of Croatian writer Kristian Novak's novel "Dark Mother Earth" -- a complex tale about a writer and his flashbacks to wartime childhood. "One of the things that will be emphasised in the film is peer violence and isolation of children in elementary school," he said. "It's something that I partly experienced in my elementary school... so I see this topic very personally." Slijepcevic said he hopes to finish the movie in the next two years.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Croatia's Palme d'Or Nebojsa Slijepcevic: tackling weighty social issues
From the dark shadows still cast by the wars that accompanied Yugoslavia's collapse to social exclusion, Croatian film director Nebojsa Slijepcevic is not afraid to shy away from weighty subjects. Slijepcevic became Croatia's first ever Palme d'Or winner -- and achieved global acclaim -- when his "The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent" premiered at the Cannes film festival last year. The short film, which depicts a war crime in Bosnia, was also shortlisted at this year's Oscars and has won a dozen other awards, including a French Cesar and a European Academy prize. "It was a surprise indeed... it became one the most successful short movies in history considering the number of awards," Zagreb-born Slijepcevic told AFP. The film depicts a real-life event from February 27, 1993 when Serb paramilitaries stopped a passenger train in Strpci, a village in eastern Bosnia. Nineteen Muslim civilians from Serbia and Montenegro were kidnapped and later killed. Of the around 500 passengers, retired Yugoslav army officer Tomo Buzov, who was travelling to visit his son, was the only one who stood up to paramilitaries. Buzov, an ethnic Croat, was taken along with the others. His remains, like those of most the victims, were never found. - 'Resisting violence' - Slijepcevic said although the film is about an atrocity committed in Bosnia in 1993, the situation is "universal, out of time and space". "It talks about something that happens very often to us both as individuals and societies... being in a position to witness injustice or violence, as some sort of observers who seemingly can afford to pretend not seeing it, that it doesn't concern us," he said. The movie pays respect to an unusually brave man, who was motivated by a human desire to defend innocent people armed with only his words, the 52-year-old director said. Buzov's family lives in the Serbian capital Belgrade and he sought their approval before making the film. Mild-mannered Slijepcevic, who describes himself as an introvert, said the movie's success was also due to the current global political turmoil. "It is about resistance to violence. The world is much more violent today than it was when I wrote the script, the violence is increasingly showing that it could change the world forever," he said. "Global events were in favour of the success of my film. Unfortunately. It's really sad, I don't triumph over it at all," he added. - Social exclusion - Slijepcevic said that when he chooses a subject to tackle, it has to resonate with him emotionally and have social significance. "It seems completely pointless to make something as expensive and as massive as a film about socially insignificant topics," he added. Two award-winning documentaries that he made -- "Gangster of Love" (2013) and "Srbenka" (2018) -- address social exclusion of people considered "different", notably on ethnic grounds. "Gangster of Love", about a matchmaker trying in vain to help a Bulgarian single mother find a husband in Croatia, portrays a conservative society in a humorous but also complex way. In rural parts of staunchly Catholic Croatia, men prefer to stay single rather than marry a foreign national with a child. "Srbenka" highlights Croatia's still-tense inter-ethnic relations after the 1990s independence war against rebel Serbs. The documentary originated from a theatre play set against the backdrop of the war. The play focused on the true story of a 12-year-old ethnic Serb girl, executed in cold blood at the start of the war, in one of the most gruesome crimes committed by Croatian forces during the conflict. More than two decades on from the war, a young Croatian girl acting in the play is filled with fear after learning that she is an ethnic Serb. Slijepcevic is currently working on a feature film, an adaptation of Croatian writer Kristian Novak's novel "Dark Mother Earth" -- a complex tale about a writer and his flashbacks to wartime childhood. "One of the things that will be emphasised in the film is peer violence and isolation of children in elementary school," he said. "It's something that I partly experienced in my elementary school... so I see this topic very personally." Slijepcevic said he hopes to finish the movie in the next two years. ljv/phz
Yahoo
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action' Review: Optimism and Outrage Battle It Out in Solid Shorts Crop
Over the past two decades, the Academy Awards have been in a constant state of flux: There are now 10 best picture nominees instead of five, the membership has grown (and diversified) by more than 50% in that time, streaming releases now routinely vie for the top prize. Amid all that change, one constant remains: For 20 years, ShortsTV has been working with the short film nominees to get their work seen around the country. The theatrical audience for those releases grows each year, to the point that the '2025 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Live Action' package is on track to outgross best picture nominee 'Nickel Boys' at the box office. First up in an all-around strong (and impressively international) selection is the Croatian short that won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year, 'The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent.' Set aboard a train traveling through Bosnia in 1993, director Nebojša Slijepčević's fact-based thriller puts us in the position of the bewildered passengers, confused and intimidated when the train stops and heavily armed men come aboard to separate Muslim travelers. Drawing from eyewitness testimonies, Slijepčević focuses on an average guy named Dragan (Goran Bogdan), who recognizes that what's happening is wrong. Given the film's title, we're hoping to see him act heroically, though the gun-wielding officer (French actor Alexis Manenti) is so threatening, Dragan doesn't dare. And so we're left to share in the shame of what happens. The film is dedicated to Tomo Buzov, a veteran who paid dearly for challenging the soldiers — and a role model in times when resistance becomes a moral obligation. More from Variety Oscar-Nominated Short 'A Lien' Joins With ACLU on Impact Campaign for Immigrant Rights Oscar Nominees Guneet Monga Kapoor, Adam J. Graves on 'Anuja': 'The Honesty Travels Through' Kristian Novak's Novel 'Dark Mother Earth' Sets Film Adaptation From Oscar-Nominated 'The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent' Director (EXCLUSIVE) In recent years, the Academy has used the shorts categories to amplify all kinds of political messages. That's one way for voters to show their values, but also a strange hijacking of an award that ought to recognize the most talented up-and-coming directors. This year, there's real talent behind the cause-based noms, which can be seen in Adam J. Graves' 'Anuja,' named for its 9-year-old protagonist (first-time performer Sajda Pathan), illegally employed in a shady Indian garment factory. The plot is slender and shameless, as the streetwise Anuja navigates a realm of Dickensian adults — some looking to exploit her, others determined to steer Anuja to a better future. The movie unravels just as it nears Anuja's climactic decision, but it's the backstory that matters most here anyway: Working with the Salaam Baalak Trust, Graves cast a girl who'd been rescued from a similar fate to play Anuja, using the project to inspire kids in similar circumstances. As it happens, the only nominee chosen solely on the strength of its filmmaking (as opposed to the worthiness of its activist cause) is Dutch writer-director Victoria Warmerdam's ultra-clever 22-minute 'I'm Not a Robot.' In a stylish modern office building, Lara (Ellen Parren) sits at her computer listening to a cover of 'Creep,' a song whose lyrics take on new relevance as the film unfolds. Faced with one of those annoying CAPTCHA prompts on her screen, Lara clicks as directed, but keeps failing the test. We've all been there, wasting time on mind-numbing tests meant to separate humans from bots, but Warmerdam introduces a twist: What if Lara really were a bot, and this was how she realized it? It's a novel approach to the AI conversation and one that puts audiences in the shoes of a possible 'replicant' as self-doubts plunge her into an existential tailspin. Unexpected, original and eminently expandable, 'Robot' feels like the prototype for a terrific feature about an all-new category of gaslighting. Exposing a cruel strategy that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses to catch non-citizens, sibling filmmakers David and Sam Cutler-Kreutz's 'A Lien' is an effective example of a fairly common format used in social-justice cinema. Basically, the idea is to follow a bureaucratic nightmare in practically real-time, criticizing the process simply by revealing how cumbersome and impersonal it all seems. In what plays like a 15-minute panic attack, the brothers observe a husband and wife (William Martinez and Victoria Ratermanis) rushing to make a mandatory immigration interview, dragging their adorable young daughter through the ringer. The film doesn't care about the rules he's broken, focusing instead on the ones he's now trying to follow in order to remain in the country — the irony being, ICE officers are waiting to arrest him at the appointment. The tight widescreen framing and shaky handheld shooting style amplify the stress of a situation that's all the more potent for not trying to pin a happy ending on such an upsetting policy. By contrast, Cindy Lee's urgent 28-minute 'The Last Ranger' takes us into the proverbial heart of darkness — an African wildlife preserve where poachers deprive rhinos of their horns — and somehow manages to leave us feeling optimistic about a seemingly impossible fight. Young Litha (Liyabona Mroqoza) loves the endangered local animals and looks up to Khusi (Avumile Qongqo), a woman who's dedicated her life to protecting them. One day, this park ranger picks up Litha and brings her along to work, intending to show the girl a live rhinoceros. Instead, they wind up witnessing the very kind of attack Khusi's sworn to prevent. It's easy to imagine the audience-friendly version of this story, but Lee admires the real-life sacrifice of such heroes too much to sanitize it, including actual footage of a rhino left for dead … and an uplifting reunion with that same animal over the end credits. Best of Variety The Best Albums of the Decade
Boston Globe
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
From ICE raids to CAPTCHA fails, this year's Oscar nominees for best live-action short tackle topical issues that resonate in tense times
'I'm Not a Robot' At first glance, Victoria Warmerdam's short appears to be the sole entry that doesn't sync up with a current issue. By the closing credits, however, you could make an argument that the film takes a swipe at the current glut of robot-based/A.I.- powered human companion stories. When music producer Lara (Ellen Parren) keeps failing those CAPTCHA tests designed to verify whether a site is interacting with a robot, she becomes suspicious of her own humanity. After getting nowhere with CAPTCHA tech support, she stumbles upon an 'Are you a robot?' questionnaire site that makes her even more confused and uncertain. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up And when Lara's boyfriend Daniel (Henry van Loon) shows up at her job acting weird, she fears the worst. Advertisement This is the kind of short that serves as a director's calling card: It's flashy and full of directorial tricks, and it has a provocative subject. Warmerdam definitely has talent, and Parren sells Lara's existential crisis, though there isn't much suspense or drama here. In Dutch with subtitles. (★★½) Sajda Pathan and Ananya Shanbhag in "Anuja." ShortsTV 'Anuja' When she's not at home reading marriage-proposal ads to her 14-year-old sister, Payak (Ananya Shanbhag), 9-year-old Anuja (Sajda Pathan) works with her at a New Delhi factory. Though director Adam J. Graves's film touches on the issue of child labor, the main thrust of this short is the relationship between the two sisters. Anuja is something of a math whiz, and Payak encourages her to take an entrance exam for a boarding school that will serve her better than a steady paycheck in a dead-end job. Payak hatches a clever plan to raise the money for the test, and it's fun to watch her and Anuja execute it. But Anuja is torn about her future. Should she stay or go? I enjoyed the interplay between Shanbhag and Pathan, but this one may be too light for Academy voters; the films that win usually require more misery. In Hindi with subtitles (★★★) Advertisement Avumile Qongqo and Liyabona Mroqoza in "The Last Ranger." ShortsTV 'The Last Ranger' Here's another film — Khuselwa catches some poachers in the act, and deadly gunfire ensues. As the mayhem erupts, we see the savagery of horn removal framed through Litha's eyes. So far, so good, but Lee lays the melodrama on way too thick. Did we really need the surprise twist here? The message of animal protection is certainly important, but its power is undermined by heavy-handedness. In Xhosa with subtitles (★★½) A scene from "The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent." ShortsTV 'The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent' By comparison, this look at a real-life incident that happened in 1993 during the Bosnian War presents itself in a lean, matter-of-fact way. A commuter train makes an unscheduled stop so that soldiers can board it. The unidentified military men demand to see IDs. One man inside the train booth where we spend most of the film doesn't have any papers. A father in the same booth tries reassuring the undocumented man, but he fears speaking up will harm his family. Advertisement Director Nebojsa Slijepcevic doesn't need to show any atrocities to generate palpable suspense. Who is the person in the title, and will he stand up for what's right? After he speaks up, he is taken off the train instead of the intended party. An end credit dedicates the film to him, so we eventually learn what happened. Like several of the films in the live-action and documentary categories, 'The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent' feels eerily prescient. It has the best shot at winning if I'm wrong about my pick below. In Croatian with subtitles (★★★½) 'A Lien' Directors Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz do an excellent job generating unbearable suspense with this terrifying film about immigrants dealing with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Like 'The Man Who Could Not Be Silent,' this short is about being punished for not having the right papers. Except this time, the victim is en route to obtaining the correct documents through what he believes is the proper channel. A hopeful husband named Oscar Gomez (William Martinez) arrives for his green card interview with his American wife (Victoria Ratermanis) and their young American-born daughter. What they don't know is that the supposed interview is actually a setup organized by ICE to imprison people who are following the rules they've been given to achieve citizenship. (An end-credit screen tells us this is a real strategy of ICE.) Shot in an anxiety-inducing series of cuts, camera angles, and disembodied voices, the directors hammer home that often-heard phrase 'the cruelty is the point.' I found myself seething at the screen as the credits rolled, and I'm sure enough Academy voters will draw a parallel between 'A Lien' and current events to give this film the Oscar. (★★★★) Advertisement Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
Washington Post
13-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
This year's Oscar shorts are affecting, distressing and a little weird
The annual road show of Academy Award-nominated short films that has been making the rounds of major cities for the past two decades is welcome on a number of fronts. Audiences get to spot filmmaking talents on the rise, animation and documentary techniques at the forefront, and hot-button topics addressed with creativity and fire. All that and some inside dope for your office Oscar betting pool. What the three programs of animated, live-action and documentary short films don't offer are any sense of continuity or, conversely, variation, since they're nominated not as programs but as individual works of quality. Thus, you can end up with a situation like this year's live-action lineup, five films whose cumulative bleakness might send you out of the theater despairing that the world will ever be set right. The best of the five and the most immediately infuriating — that's a measure of its success — is 'A Lien,' from brothers Sam and David Cutler-Kreutz; it follows a married couple (played by William Martinez and Victoria Ratermantis) who show up at the New York City immigration office with their young daughter (Koralyn Rivera) for a scheduled appointment to have the husband's application for citizenship approved. The film, suspenseful and heartbreaking, educates audiences on the real-life practice by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement of using required green card interviews as a hunting ground to deport people who've been in this country since childhood. More relevant now than when it was made, 'A Lien' reminds a viewer that, for too many agencies and administrations, the cruelty is the point. The other films on the program illustrate the perils of speaking up in 1993 Bosnia ('The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent'), the plight of child laborers in India ('Anuja'), the hardships of South African game rangers trying to protect endangered rhinos from poachers ('The Last Ranger') and the 'Black Mirror'-like possibility that some of us may fail those 'I am not a robot' verification puzzles because we are, in fact, robots ('I'm Not a Robot'). All are thoughtful, well-made and deserving of their nominations, but their combined weight may leave you gasping for breath. The documentary shorts, by contrast, illustrate the vexing modern habit of preprogramming the audience's emotions with heart-tugging music and fancy filmmaking footwork instead of just the facts. Two entries dealing with the death penalty, 'I Am Ready, Warden,' about the final days of death row prisoner John Henry Ramirez, and 'Death by Numbers,' about a survivor of the 2018 Parkland high school shooting attending the killer's sentencing, are powerful enough without the extra frills. Two other shorts focus on women at either end of the human lifespan: the Netflix documentary 'The Only Girl in the Orchestra,' about retiring New York Philharmonic double bass player Orin O'Brien, and 'Instruments of a Beating Heart,' which focuses on a 6-year-old Japanese schoolgirl as she struggles to take part in a school assembly program. The first is a delightful and belated introduction to a larger-than-life force of nature, and the second is a surprisingly complex emotional journey that had me tearing up at times — my second favorite film in this category. My favorite in the documentary short category, and the one that easily deserves to win, is 'Incident,' which shows the 2018 shooting of Harith 'Snoop' Augustus by Chicago police officers from the uninflected POVs of street surveillance cameras and law enforcement body cams. Brilliantly edited by the gifted filmmaker Bill Morrison ('Decasia'), who splits the screen into multiple feeds as neighborhood tensions ratchet up in the minutes after the killing, 'Incident' leaves viewers to come to their own conclusions, the most inescapable of which is that this was a situation that never needed to happen, instigated and escalated by rookie cops and ending in the appalling waste of an innocent man's life. One arrives at the animated shorts nominees hoping for a little levity, please, and past years have seen entries from Pixar and Disney take the prize with ingenuity, wit and endless computing power. This year's program is mostly … weird. And by weird, I mean 'Wander to Wonder,' an absurdist comedy about a British children's TV show whose eccentric creator has died, leaving his three miniature characters alive and confused. By weird, I mean 'Beautiful Men,' about three balding Belgian brothers who journey to Istanbul for hair transplant operations. By weird, I mean 'In the Shadow of the Cypress,' a poetic, pastel Iranian fable about a traumatized sea captain, his daughter and a beached whale. And by really weird — but creative, hilarious and oddly moving — I mean 'Magic Candies' from Japan, about a lonely little stop-motion boy who sucks hard candies that give voice to his living room couch, his dog, the autumn leaves and his grandmother's ghost. That leaves France's adorable 'Yuck!,' a loopily animated charmer about a vacationing gang of kids who respond to all the kissing grown-ups they see by yelling the title sentiment — until little Leo and Lucy find their own lips glowing in unexpected mutual attraction. Yuck! Ew! Awww. And after all the talented intensity of the other nominees: phew. Unrated. At area theaters; check listings for separate program times. Animated shorts: 88 minutes. Live-action shorts: 102 minutes. Documentary shorts: 159 minutes. Contain disturbing situations, documentary violence and stop-motion nudity. Ty Burr is the author of the movie recommendation newsletter Ty Burr's Watch List at
