As Marseille sets itself up to become the "European Capital of Culture 2013", factories have to disappear from the picture...

One of them is Legré-Mante, a small factory which used to be the only producer of tartaric acids (used mainly in food additives) in the country. Without being informed, the workers turn up one morning in July 2009... and find the gates closed.

They occupied the factory for several months to fight against the closure... to no avail. Their demands were neither heard by their former employer, nor by the tribunal which examined their case. And when looking at the rundown halls and equipment, it seems unlikely it would find a prospective buyer. The images of what is left of the factory give an idea of the appalling conditions in which the employees of Legré-Mante had to work, with minimal safety measures in a highly dangerous environment. It is then not difficult to imagine that the closure was already planned long ago, and that its proximity to the future national park of the Calanques, close to the sea, makes its ground an attractive one.

This led to a paradoxical situation, well described by the satirical newspaper "Le Canard enchainé": Legré-Mante in Marseille, "that was something: the processing of tartaric acids with rusty, leaky pipes, repaired with shoestrings... And when the antiquated employer decided to close the factory, the workers ended up having to defend the indefensible: that is, a dangerous wreck."

We show the fist 22 minutes of the film.