The bullet that killed Mariano Polonio hit the cinema

Mariano Polonio, that was his name, was one of many young men who signed up as volunteers for the Blue Division and did not return to Spain. The family was told he died fighting in World War II, but there was nothing more to it than that. Fernando told ABC that the lawyer brothers “decided to take a bit of an adventure, but an impossible adventure, to go to Russia to try to locate our uncle’s grave, if there is one.” It was a miracle…

Well, as unbelievable as it may seem, they did it after six years and a lot of travel. Not only that. They discovered that Uncle Mariano died on the night of May 31, 1942 on the Novgorod Front, on the banks of the Volkhov River, about 200 kilometers southeast of St. Petersburg – Leningrad at the time.

“The battalion’s father sent a letter to my grandparents telling them the news and saying he died from wounds to the abdomen with no exit hole,” Fernando says. He adds: “Indeed, after many years, When we found the grave with our uncle’s remains, the bullet was embedded in his hip.. Analysis was conducted and it was found to be a Russian bullet fired at a distance of about 300 meters from a higher position.

It appears that volunteer Mariano lit a cigarette in the trench, which illuminated it and made him an easy target for the sniper on duty, who shot and killed him while he was positioned in a tree or anywhere.

The story is so amazing that it feels like a movie, and will be accurately brought to life on the big screen starting Friday, although the characters will change. Titled “The Bullet”. The project is headed by Carlos Iglesias, who writes, stars and directs a cast that includes Silvia Marceau, Carlos Hipolito, Eloisa Vargas, Roberto Alvarez, Miguel Relan and Manuel Morón.

Polonio learned about the Garrido family during a reception at the Russian embassy. “Over time we became friends, they invited me to their house and showed me the bullet. And at that moment the synopsis for the film was born,” the director recalls to this newspaper.

Up to 5,000 Spaniards

Iglesias believes that in Spain “there are very interesting stories we could tell if creating a film project was a little easier.” Also an author “1 franc, 14 pesetas”, “espansi (Spanish!)” also ‘2 francs, 40 pesetas’, Where he presented his own experience while growing up in Switzerland or the experience of those children who were sent by the government of the Second Republic to the Soviet Union in the Civil War, his obsession as a director was to make the memory of our fathers and grandfathers known.

“I was a very bad student, but there were two subjects in which I got honors. One was geography and the other was history. The story is perfect for a movie. With “Ispansi,” it occurred to me that I was in a performing arts school and that my acting teacher, Ángel Gutierrez, was a child of war. He told us many adventures and left me shocked. “I documented myself, went to Russia, talked to everyone, and that’s how the film ‘Espansi’ was made,” explains Iglesias, whose “young people today barely know about the Blue Section, let alone that there are two brothers who have been exhuming bodies for years.”

Because the Garrido Polonius family not only found the body – or rather what was left of it – of their uncle, but also published The book “Red Snow” recounts the Odyssey and they founded the Russian Society of the Disappeared. It is estimated that 5,000 Spaniards died there; “We have found 3,000 graves, and nearly one hundred percent of them have been identified and the remains of about 50 soldiers have been repatriated.” The Carmelite Church in Toledo is where they are delivered to their families.

Returning to “The Bullet,” Iglesias reveals that the idea was to film it in the place where the events actually took place: “We were close to it.” “The brothers are close friends with important Russian military officials who could have made things easier for us, but the war in Ukraine began.” The sites selected were Madrid, Collado Villalba, Ciudad Rodrigo and the province of Toledo. “Although we have special status, we have not been to Russia since the epidemic. “The current situation makes that impossible, although we plan to return when things return to normal,” says Fernando.