Little prisoners The Key is Ebrahim Forouzesh’s first feature-length film. He began his career in 1970 at the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Youth. The script was written by Abbas Kiarostami, who then worked at the same Institute and also made films for children. This is not an Iranian film called Home Alone. This is a realistic film, shot almost in a documentary style. The camera follows 5-year-old Amir, who probably performs all household tasks for the first time, and the world of adult things is not at all adapted for a child. But he fights these naughty things using his little experience. Forouzes and Kiarostami worked together on set. Amir probably didn’t feel like an actor, if he knew he was making a movie. Just like little Mina in Jafar Panahi's The Mirror. He just performed the tasks assigned to him, even impossible.
The intense comedy drama tells the story of Amir. One morning, Amir’s mother went shopping, leaving him with her little brother. She gave him several errands: feed his brother when he woke up and watch the gas stove on which dinner was prepared. My mother stayed somewhere and in the apartment one after another there are small tragedies. It all begins with the fact that Amir decides first to drink the bird in the cage. Then comes the turmoil. Cries of the baby, attempts to change diapers, a broken jar of sauce and the most dangerous object - a gas stove. The situation periodically changes from funny to anxious and vice versa. Amir bravely struggles with his brother’s feeding instructions, but because of his physical and intellectual abilities as a child, things don’t go according to plan. The situation inside the apartment is heated, as well as a pressure cooker on a gas stove. Neighbors appear, then the grandma of the toddlers, but they can't get into the apartment because there's no key. No one can help, the doors of the apartment are locked, and the spare key hangs on the hanger in an inaccessible place for the little hero.
The minimalist low-budget drama, with an emphasis on a simple mundane story about a boy left at home by his mother with his little brother, is Forouzesh's debut and is known in cinema as an Iranian miracle. The filmmakers perfectly use the closed environment and detailed thematic articles. A number of internationally successful Iranian films of the 80’s and 90’s were produced by the Tehran Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Youth, often because the institute’s employees work with the elementary and simple character of children’s heroes. Their essential feature is the ability to have the courage to cope with problems. The film does not indicate the time of action or place and given the gentle non-violent humor, it can be perceived as a film for children. But on the other hand, as a metaphor for Iranian totalitarianism closed to the outside world and the threat of growing pressure from within. This interpretation is also supported by the fact that the film did not appear until four years after its creation.