A documentary about the Soviet front-line poet was shot in Russia

MOSCOW. The film about Ion Degen, a Soviet front-line poet, author of the famous poem "My comrade, in deadly agony…" was shot by Russian directors Mikhail Degtyar and Julia Marmelad. The premiere of the film will be held on December 18 at the Moscow Jewish Museum and the Center for Tolerance. According to the press service of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia (FEOR), this picture has already managed to become one of the winners of documentary films of the Laurel Branch 2014 award.

According to the message of FEOR “the fate of the hero of the Great Patriotic War, the doctor, poet and writer Ion Lazarevich Degen” formed the basis of the film. In 1977, he was forced to emigrate to Israel, and for the first time after leaving he visited his homeland in 2013. Ion Lazarevich plans to attend the premiere of the film, so after the show the organizers are scheduled to meet with him.

The documentary is based not only on the war period of the poet’s life, but also on his biography after the Second World War - a complex relationship with the Soviet government, work as a doctor, marriage and departure to Israel.

Ion Degen is from the city of Mogilev-Podolsky (Ukraine, Vinnytsia region). Degen took over his passion for medicine from his father, who worked as a medical assistant in a local hospital. Ion went to the front as a volunteer at the age of 16, immediately becoming a soldier of the fighter battalion, consisting of schoolchildren of 9-10th grades. During the Great Patriotic War, he served as a scout, tanker, earned himself the glory of one of the most successful tank aces and was twice awarded the Order of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

Svetlana Korableva © Gallerix.ru