Emmanuel Courcol

A world-famous orchestra conductor discovers the brother he never knew he had — a school cafeteria worker who plays trombone in a local marching band. Detecting his brother's exceptional musical talent, he takes it upon himself to rectify the injustice of fate.

From November 2018 to May 2019, nine long-sentence inmates from the Meaux-Chauconin penitentiary will take part in a theatrical creation directed by choreographer Hervé Sika with the collaboration of professional artists and the Orchestre de chambre de Paris. From boxing sessions to writing workshops and dance rehearsals, right up to the final performance at the MC 93 in Bobigny, and despite the doubts and hazards of working in a prison environment, a surprising show will emerge that will have a profound effect on the participants.

Etienne, an often out of work but endearing actor, runs a theater workshop in a prison, where he brings together an unlikely troupe of prisoners to stage Samuel Beckett’s famous play Waiting for Godot. When he is allowed to take the colorful band of convicts on a tour outside of prison, Etienne finally has the chance to thrive.

In the early 1920s, Georges Laffont, traumatized by the horrific trench warfare, decides to leave his life behind and travel to West Africa. In the vast territories of Upper Volta he - with the help of Diofo, artist and also survivor of the Great War - try to recruit the villagers as labor for plantations in Ghana. But his adventure leads him to a dead-end, and he comes back to Paris desperate to find his place in the world.