SOVIET LAND HC

A gripping thriller - sometimes absurd, sometimes melancholic - about an unlucky duo of crooks plundering their way through the decaying remnants of the former USSR. 1990s Russia: the Soviet Union is history, its vague promise of utopia eroded. Among rubble, scavengers, and looters, people fight to survive.

Amid the vast tundra and crumbling Soviet structures, two opportunistic thieves pursue a questionable hobby: they secure all kinds of finds that might interest wealthy investors. Slava, once a promising young painter, has abandoned career and ideals to drift around with his old school friend, the cunning con man Lavrin. In this new dog-eat-dog order, Lavrin promises that everything can be bought and sold.

• Setting: 1990s Russia after the collapse of the USSR
• Protagonists: Slava, a failed painter, and the notorious con man Lavrin
• Themes: collapse of ideals, crime, loyalty, survival, and the hope for a fresh start
• Tone: tragicomic, human, and atmospherically dense

Writer Pierre-Henry Gomont tells a powerful story of ordinary people caught in the maelstrom of historical upheaval. His deeply human characters grope through a disorienting world in which the promise of tomorrow has faded - and want nothing more than to carry on: to live, to love, and perhaps one day to paint again.