Bernhard Braunstein

Atelier de conversation

Once a week in Paris a group of individuals from all corners of the world meet in a small room at Centre Pompidou to participate in free French lessons. Asylum seekers, businessmen, doctors, lawyers, and students sit side-by-side and immerse themselves in polite, if stilted, conversation. However, tensions and misunderstandings occur as the nuances which each participant attempts to express become lost as they struggle to access the language. But despite their differences - and linguistic limitations - the disparate group of strangers in a foreign land find, in the small gestures and subtle looks between the words, a way towards understanding.