Once again, the British-based Shorts streaming platform is doing a valuable service by packaging the short films which have been nominated for Academy Awards this year in three categories: live action, animation and documentary (15 pieces in all), and there are enough high points here to make up for some of the duller and more redundant moments.
In the live-action drama category, the most garlanded already is The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent from Croatian director Nebojsa Slijepcevic; it is the winner of the Cannes Palme d’Or for short film and is based on the true story of the 1993 Štrpci massacre during the Bosnian war, when Serbian paramilitaries stopped a train and demanded from each passenger who their family’s patron saint was (a way of telling who the Orthodox Serbs were); they took off 18 Muslims and one Croat to be murdered. The film is about the one man who stood up to them, and the film keeps the audience off-balance with an interesting misdirection about who that person is going to be and who is therefore the film’s hero. There is a real chill when the train finally shudders forward again and the people left aboard realise, with a mixture of relief and shame, that they are safe … because they remained silent.
