The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, a film by Croatian director Nebojsa Slijepcevic, who is also the author of the script, on Saturday won the Golden Palm award in the short film competition programme at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

This is the first Golden Palm for Croatia since the country gained independence, and director Slijepcevic accepted it at the award-giving ceremony in Cannes.

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent was produced by Katarina Prpic and Danijel Pek (Antitalent) in cooperation with Katya Trichkova (Contrast Films, Bulgaria) and Noëlle Lévénez (Les Films Norfolk, France).

The best film in the category of short films was chosen by a jury presided over by Belgian actress Lubna Azabal.

Accepting the award, Slijepcevic thanked the entire film crew, receiving thunderous applause.

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent had its world premiere on Friday, 25 May, in the presence of the film crew.

In 2018 Slijepcevic won the DOC Allience award in Cannes for his feature-length documentary Srbenka.

The Antitalent production company previously celebrated in Cannes when Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s feature film Murina won the Golden Camera prize in 2021.

A major success at this prestigious film festival was also The High Sun by Croatian director Dalibor Matanic, which was declared the best film of the Un Certain Regard programme.

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent is based on a true story. The film follows a train that is intercepted by armed Serb paramilitaries at a small stop in Štrpci, Bosnia and Herzegovina, travelling from Belgrade to Bar, Montenegro, in 1993.

Acting on a tip-off about some of the passengers being Muslim, the paramilitaries identify and single out 19 Muslim passengers, whom they execute soon after the train continues its journey. Around 500 passengers witness this but nobody dares to oppose the paramilitaries, except for a retired Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) officer, Tomo Buzov, who is travelling to visit his son.

The cast includes Goran Bogdan, Alexis Manenti, Dragan Micanovic, Silvio Mumelas, Lara Nekic, Priska Ugrina, Dusan Gojic, Nebojsa Pop Tasic, Mijo Pavelko, Martin Kuhar, Jakov Zovko and Robert Ugrina.

The film was made with the support of the Croatian Audio Visual Centre.

Palme d’Or goes to Sean Baker

The festival’s main award, the Golden Palm, went to US director Sean Baker for his film Anora.