Anthracite

ANTHRACITE Cédric Gras In 2014, the mining region of Donbass breaks away from the Ukraine in order to rejoin Russia. The leader of the Donetsk Opera's orchestra, Vladlen (Vladimir Lenin) stubbornly plays the national anthem. He is forced to flee to the banks of the Soviet Volga, home of his childhood friend Emile, who works in the extraction of anthracite, the coal for which the Donbass region is renowned throughout the USSR. The battered route traverses the steppes bristling with slagheaps and iron and steel works. They confess their disappointments to each other and argue about the pro-European revolution in Maidan, all the while trying to escape the disintegrating Ukraine. However, Vladlen will not leave without Essénia, his new love. A vast contemporary saga about a tragi-comic road trip caught between civil war and anthracite mines. Cédric Gras is 34. He lived and travelled for ten years between Russia and the Ukraine. Notably, before the start of the war, he created and managed the Donetsk Alliance Française in Donbass. He is the author of three books published by Phébus and of L'Hiver aux trousses (2015) by Stock.