lain and Bruno don’t know each other and have nothing in common. Yet, they do share one thing: they are both complete outsiders. Shut out even from their own lives, they have no real contact with the world around them. In the eyes of others, they are practically invisible.

But their lives suddenly change when, by incredible coincidence, they meet a third man: Z, a homeless man, a nobody. Someone who is easily dismissed as “the lowest of the low”. And this strange guy has a very peculiar way of surviving. Instead of begging on a street corner, he has come up with his own solution: breaking into large apartments and living there in hiding. For someone as invisible as he is, it’s quite easy.

So, Alain and Bruno start to learn the art of breaking and entering and staying “hidden”. A beautiful friendship develops between the three men. In their trio, Z sees the family he has never really had. But the evil that eats away at our societies also takes hold of the hearts of our two protagonists: they want more and more … thinking it will make them even happier …

Cast

Bruno
Bruno Clairefond
Alain
Alain Guillot
Z
Sylka -
Victoire
Dorothée Deblaton
LA CLEF - Poster 1

The Key

Paul Sportiello

  • Fiction
Production Country / Year
France 2025
Language
frz. OF m. engl. UT
Format
DCP, Black & white, 108min
2.39:1, Discrete 5.1
Original Title
La Clef

Director & Crew

Paul Sportiello 1

Paul Sportiello

Born in 1990 in France. Self-taught photographer and short film writer. Active as a director and screenwriter.

Filmography

2005 Bottom Kurzfilm
2009 Ulysses Kurzfilm
2011 Tania Kurzfilm
2019 Personne Kurzfilm
2024 La Clef Spielfilm 2025

“My childhood and adolescence were filled with uncertainty and the hope of escape ... All these brutal realities that have gone through my personal history are obviously at the heart of this film. A fictional story about people struggling with life that I intended to be an urban, burlesque and humanist fable.”

Director of Photography
Cassiana Sarrazin
Editor
Paul Sportiello
Production Designer
Daniel Dubois
Sound
Matthieu Perrot
Make-up
Adeline Fillon
Producer
Emilie Huynh