Darko Buzov, Son of Oscar-Nominated Short’s Subject, Dies Ahead of Academy Awards

The Oscars ceremony tonight, Sunday, March 2, will be bittersweet for the filmmakers of the nominated short film The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent. Darko Buzov, son of Tomo Buzov, the film’s subject, died at age 52 on Thursday, February 27.

The younger Buzov died of suddenly of a heart attack in Belgrade, Serbia, 32 years to the day after his father acted heroically during a paramilitary attack upon civilians, according to Deadline, which reported the news.

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent tells the true story of Tomo on the morning of February 27, 1993, when the train he boarded at Belgrade was stopped near the village of Štrpci by Serbian-aligned militia members hunting Bosnian Muslims, Deadline reports.

Tomo wasn’t Muslim but confronted the armed men, who executed him and 18 Bosnian Muslim civilians outside the train. Out of the 500 passengers, Tomo was the only one who stood up to the attackers.

“Everybody on that train, 500 of them, kept their eyes on the floor and stayed silent in front of 20 uniformed hooligans,” Darko told the Serbian magazine NIN last year.

The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent is a short film dramatizing the massacre, with Nebojša Slijepčević writing and directing and Dragan Mićanović playing Tomo. The film won the Palme d’Or for Best Short Film at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival and is nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 97th Academy Awards.

Witnesses told Darko’s family that Tomo stood up to save a Muslim boy, according to NIN.

“My father was killed so that he could save another human. And Slijepčević said that he wanted to make a film about the humanity of one man, regardless of whether he is a Serb, a Croat, or a Muslim, just as it was documented that the event took place,” Darko told the magazine.

“I have never felt the desire for revenge,” he added. “Revenge is never sweet; it always drags you into something even darker. Nor have I felt hatred. The way and the reason why my father is gone brings a feeling of peace, a feeling that perhaps, that was supposed to happen, for a younger life to be saved, an older one was sacrificed of his own free will. I would do the same now.”