Tomas Bata, l’homme qui voulait chausser l’humanité entière décida en 1930 de créer en Lorraine une usine à chaussures, une cité idéale et un modèle de vie : Bataville. Le film nous raconte l’âge d’or de cette utopie patronale : une aventure joyeuse et terrifiante, une mise en scène du bonheur obligatoire.

In Lorraine to the east of France, a new form of social and economic experiment was born in 1932. The man who wanted to put his shoes on the feet of the entire world, Tomas Bata, decided to create one of his laboratories of modern life. The place was called Bataville with, beside the Bata shoe factory, a model city and community.
The film recounts the invention of this utopia and its edifying history. A fable on obliged happiness, it allows us to revisit the frightening and joyous history of paternalism. The factory closed in 2001.