Documentary on Igor Kon wins Artdocfest prize ^{CEFR B2}

“Why I Swam Against the Current,” a new documentary about Igor Kon, won the best director prize at Artdocfest in March 2025. The film was made by the Berlin-based studio Narra together with the independent journalist cooperative Bereg and was released on Meduza's YouTube channel.

Igor Kon was born in 1928 in Saint Petersburg. He grew up mainly with his mother while his father barely participated in his life, and he survived evacuation during the Siege of Leningrad. At 15 he began studying history, first at Chuvashiya State Pedagogical University and later in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad) after his return. Kon worked in the social sciences during a period of strong political limits in the Soviet Union, changing jobs and facing periods of unemployment; as a person of Jewish origin he also experienced discrimination that at times limited his opportunities.

By the mid-1980s Kon was widely known as the first and for many years the only sexologist in the USSR. He regularly appeared in the media, drew on foreign academic literature, and contributed to public policy on AIDS as the epidemic reached the late USSR. Protocols for treating HIV were in place in Russia since 1990, and treatment with foreign effective drugs was available for free before the invasion of Ukraine started in 2022. The Soviet film Little Vera (1988) showed a modest sex scene and was watched by 55 million people; homosexuality was removed from the list of criminal offences in 1993.

In the 1990s Kon researched homosexuality and in the early 2000s explored gender roles. During the Putin era he faced hostility from state and church actors: the documentary shows a 30 January 2001 lecture at Moscow State University where firecrackers were set off, offensive posters were unfurled and someone threw a pie at him; a week later a fake bomb was left at his door and he received death threats. In 2002 Orthodox activists published a pamphlet accusing him of supporting LGBTQ+ people. Kon died in 2011; his ashes were buried secretly in the same grave as his mother to prevent vandalism. Director Igor Sadreev said: "Igor Kon did not hide from reality behind his desk, but changed it to the best of his ability. He spoke on the most painful and taboo subjects, and stood up for the most vulnerable members of society. In essence, this film is about scientific courage, moral responsibility, and inner freedom."