How can you find yourself if no-one can see you?
Towelhead follows the dark, bold and shockingly funny life of Jasira (Summer Bishil), a 13-year-old Arab-American girl, as she navigates the confusing and frightening path of adolescence and her own sexual awakening.
When Jasira's mother sends her to Houston to live with her strict Lebanese father, she quickly learns that her new neighbours find her and her father a curiosity. Worse, her budding womanhood makes her traditional and hot-tempered father uncomfortable. Lonely in this new environment, Jasira seeks friendship and acceptance from her neighbours Mr Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart), an Army reservist, and Melina (Eugene Jones III), a meddling but caring expectant mother.
Thrown into an unfamiliar suburban world, Jasira must confront racism and hypocrisy at home and at school - and at the same time struggle to make sense of her raging hormones and new-found sexuality. Her boyfriend, Thomas (Eugene Jones III), though a few years older, provides some comfort - but even that relationship causes problems when her father discovers that Thomas is black. Surrounded by adults who are just as lost as she is, Jasira yearns for understanding, even amidst often brutal acts.
Special Agent Matti
Ewww. Yucky, yucky. Towelhead shows us the joys of racism, pig-headedness and paedophilia. It's not a big thriller like Hard candy but what it lacks in flashiness it more than makes up for with drama. Show it to your teenage sons and daughters so that they understand how some paedophiles operate. Show it to your kids to that they understand how racists operate. Heck, just show it to your kids.
The drama, teen movie Towelhead is directed by Alan Ball and stars Aaron Eckhart, Toni Collette, Summer Bishil.
MA 15+ (Strong disturbing sexual scenes and themes involving a minor)
116 minutes (1:56 hours)
Film: 9 October 2008
