Documentary on Igor Kon wins Artdocfest prizeCEFR A2
16 Apr 2025
Adapted from Daria Dergacheva, Global Voices • CC BY 3.0
Photo by yasmin peyman, Unsplash
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 and the independent journalist cooperative Bereg, and it was released on Meduza's YouTube channel.
Igor Kon was born in Saint Petersburg and lived with his mother. He survived evacuation in the Siege of Leningrad. At 15 he began studying history at a university in Chuvashiya and later continued his studies in Saint Petersburg (then Leningrad) after he returned.
Kon worked in the social sciences during the Soviet era and sometimes had no steady job. He became known in the mid-1980s as the first Soviet sexologist and later worked on AIDS policy. He died in 2011.
Difficult words
- documentary — a film about real people or events
- director — person who leads a film project
- cooperative — a group that works together for common goals
- evacuation — moving people away from danger to safety
- survive — to continue living after a dangerous eventsurvived
- sexologist — a scientist who studies human sexual behavior
Tip: hover, focus or tap highlighted words in the article to see quick definitions while you read or listen.
Discussion questions
- Would you watch a documentary about a person's life? Why or why not?
- Do you know anyone who had to leave a dangerous place? What happened?
- Why might someone study history at university?
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