''Towelhead'' (alternatively titled ''Nothing Is Private'') is a 2007 American
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
written and directed by
Alan Ball and based on
Alicia Erian
Alicia Erian (born 1967) is an American novelist.
She was born to an Egyptian father and American mother of Polish descent. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English from Binghamton University and a Master of Fine Arts in writing from Vermont ...
's
novel of the same name. The film made its
world premiere
A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition.
A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its f ...
at the
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...
on September 8, 2007 under the name ''Nothing Is Private''. The film, like the book, touches on issues of
coming-of-age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from being a child to being an adult. The specific age at which this transition takes place varies between societies, as does the nature of the change. It can be a simple legal convention or can ...
, sexual awakening, privacy, and race.
Plot
In 1990 amid the
Kuwait War of 1990–1991, 13-year-old Jasira, a
Lebanese-American
Lebanese Americans ( ar, أمريكيون لبنانيون) are Americans of Lebanese descent. This includes both those who are native to the United States of America, as well as immigrants from Lebanon.
Lebanese Americans comprise 0.79% of the ...
girl, lives with her mother in
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
. When her mother's live-in boyfriend helps Jasira shave her
pubic hair
Pubic hair is terminal body hair that is found in the genital area of adolescent and adult humans. The hair is located on and around the sex organs and sometimes at the top of the inside of the thighs. In the pubic region around the pubis bon ...
, her mother sends Jasira to live with her old-fashioned and domineering Lebanese father Rifat in suburban
Houston, Texas
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...
. Jasira is treated as a second class citizen by her overprotective father. He is strict, does not allow her to use
tampon
A tampon is a feminine hygiene, menstrual product designed to absorb blood and vaginal secretions by insertion into the vagina during menstruation. Unlike a Sanitary napkin, pad, it is placed internally, inside of the vaginal canal. Once inser ...
s, and prefers spending time with his new girlfriend Thena. Even her mother refuses to support her when she calls and begs for help, forcing Jasira to comply with his rules. Her father acts very disrespectfully towards her and berates her for the slightest thing.
Jasira experiences a
sexual awakening, sparked in part by adult magazines she finds when baby-sitting her next-door neighbor Zack Vuoso. While Jasira is home alone one night, Zack's father Travis comes over to retrieve one of his magazines and sexually assaults her. Jasira befriends a classmate, Thomas Bradley, eventually becoming sexually active with him. When Rifat finds out about her relationship with Thomas, he forbids her from ever seeing him, only because he is black.
Mr. Vuoso becomes jealous of Jasira's relationship with Thomas, and, pretending he has to go to
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
the next morning, tricks Jasira into sleeping with him. When Rifat finds one of Mr. Vuoso's adult magazines at his house, he beats Jasira, and she seeks refuge at the home of pregnant Melina and her husband, Gil, neighbors who were aware of and concerned about Mr. Vuoso's inappropriate behavior towards Jasira from the beginning. While staying at their house, Gil notices bruises on Jasira's legs and Rifat angrily knocks on the door wanting to retrieve his daughter. When both Melina and Gil refuse to let Rifat in, he threatens to call the police and claim that they kidnapped his daughter, but Gil responds to Rifat that he will tell them about the bruises he left on Jasira. She goes to school the next day and Melina picks her up, along with Thomas. When they make it back home, they decide to have sex, but are almost caught by Melina.
Later, Rifat visits the couple along with Thena. He notices Thomas is in the house and angrily confronts him. He also reveals why he despises him. He then decides to check the house and discovers a condom in the trash. He assumes Thomas is responsible for taking his daughter's virginity and attempts to assault him. This forces Jasira to confess that she had sex with Mr. Vuoso, who is then arrested and bailed out the next day.
Thomas talks with Jasira about her abuse from Mr. Vuoso, and explains that he does not want to have sex with her anymore. She says she does not want to stop. One day after school, Jasira retrieves the corpse of Travis' cat, which ran off after she came by his house and was accidentally run over by Rifat on his way home. When Melina sees Jasira talking to Mr. Vuoso, she runs outside to stop the conversation, but trips and falls down on the ground, which causes her to bleed and go into labor. While at the hospital, Rifat is asked by Jasira to accompany Melina in the delivery room, since her husband will not make it in time. When Rifat refuses to stay, he finally decides to trust Jasira and let her stay and live with Melina, which makes her very happy. He leaves the delivery room and Jasira witnesses Melina giving birth to a baby girl.
Cast
Critical reception
''Towelhead'' received mixed reviews from critics;
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
reports that 49% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 114 reviews, with an average rating of 5.36/10. The consensus reads, "This story of politics, race and sexual awakening has moments that pack a punch, but overall, ''Towelhead'' never quite achieves the nuance of helmer Alan Ball's television work." The film also holds a score of 57 out of 100 on
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
based on 31 reviews.
References
External links
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{{Alan Ball
2007 films
2007 directorial debut films
2007 drama films
2007 independent films
2000s coming-of-age drama films
2000s English-language films
American black comedy films
American coming-of-age drama films
American independent films
Films about child sexual abuse
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about interracial romance
Films about rape
Films based on American novels
Films scored by Thomas Newman
Films set in 1990
Films set in Houston
Films set in New York (state)
Films shot in Los Angeles
Indian Paintbrush (production company) films
Lebanese-American culture
Warner Independent Pictures films
Juvenile sexuality in films
Films about puberty
Films about father–daughter relationships
2000s American films