Pelo Malo – from Venezuelan writer/director Mariana Rondón (Postcards from Leningrad) – follows the world of nine year old Junior, who lives in vivid, overpopulated working-class Caracas, and whose dislike of the stubbornly curly hair he’s inherited from his absent father puts him at odds with his mother Marta.
He wants to iron it straight for his yearbook picture so he looks like a pop star, but the more he tries to beautify himself, the more Marta seems to reject him. His paternal grandmother seems less concerned about what his wishes indicate – but even with her support, he eventually finds himself facing a painful decision.
A tenderly observed portrait of a young boy whose hair is laden with issues of social identity and sexual desire that he is too young to understand, Pelo Malo is tough, subtle and sensitive, and a very impressive new work from Rondón.