Towelhead

Director: Alan Ball Alan Ball

Overview

Six Feet Under creator and American Beauty screenwriter Alan Ball makes his feature directorial debut with this screen adaptation of author Alicia Erian's controversial novel Towelhead. Jasira (Summer Bishil) is a 13-year-old Arab-American who's contending with the pains of adolescence when her life takes a sudden and unexpected turn. Sent to live with her stern Lebanese father, Rifat (Peter Macdissi), by her self-absorbed mother (Maria Bello), Jasira finds herself struggling to adjust to life in the suburbs while contending with racism and hypocrisy at every turn. Rifat lives in a modest, suburban Houston home next to racist reservist Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart) and meddling expectant mother Melina (Toni Collette). Adjusting to life in the suburbs isn't easy for young Jasira, though she tries her hardest to adapt to the unfamiliar environment by striking up casual conversations with her curious new neighbors. In the process, Jasira finds herself increasingly attracted to hormone-driven African-American teen Thomas (Eugene Jones). When Rifat finds out that his daughter's new boyfriend is black, he vehemently condemns the relationship. As America launches its initial invasion of Iraq, Jasira finds herself caught up in a potentially explosive situation that is only compounded by her raging hormones and the snooping of her pregnant, busybody neighbor.

Product Details

Release Date:	12/05/2017
UPC:	0888574564889
Original Release:	2007
Source:	Warner Archives
Language:	English
Sales rank:	55,571

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Summer Bishil	Jasira
Aaron Eckhart	Mr. Vuoso
Peter Macdissi	Rifat
Toni Collette	Melina
Maria Bello	Gail
Eugene Jones	Thomas Bradley
Matt Letscher	Gil
Chase Ellison	Zack
Gemmenne De la Pena	Denise
Lynn Collins	Thena
Thomas Newman	Composer

Technical Credits

Alan Ball

Alan Ball	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Scott Rudin	Executive Producer
Anne Carey	Executive Producer
Peggy Rajski	Executive Producer
Ted Hope	Producer

Editorial Reviews

Calling this motion picture Towelhead makes the filmgoer blink for a second, as the original title, Nothing Is Private, is a bit less leading and more descriptive. Director Alan Ball creates an immediately uncomfortable setting when a young girl is sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend, betrayed by her mom, and shipped off to her frighteningly overbearing father. The central theme is the dysfunction of everyone around the 13-year-old protagonist, Jasira (played by 18-year-old actress Summer Bishil), and how the perpetual victim of circumstance has to find a survival mechanism while surrounded by huge amounts of chaos. The deck is stacked heavily against the adolescent, with the smears and epithets she endures from classmates as painful as the other types of abuse -- verbal, physical, and sexual -- she is subjected to from almost everyone around her in a variety of different ways. Toni Collette is again brilliant, this time as pseudo-hippie wife Melina; she and her husband appear to be the only two people who have a clue about morality in young Jasira's truly grim reality. Watching Aaron Eckhart's character crumble is equally upsetting, the film a finely threaded series of harrowing events which force heavy guilt upon the adults over their selfish and highly questionable choices. Jasira's emergence from victim to young lady is a powerful antidote to the repeatedly unsettling predicaments director Ball puts the viewer through. The film is thought-provoking and sharp, with fine acting throughout, but it isn't easy, as this cerebral essay is not about entertainment.