Towelhead

Towelhead (alternatively titled Nothing Is Private) is a 2007 American drama film written and directed by Alan Ball and based on Alicia Erian's novel of the same name. The film made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2007, under the name Nothing Is Private. The film, like the book, touches on issues of coming-of-age, sexual awakening, privacy, and race. Plot In 1990 amid the Kuwait War of 1990–1991, 13-year-old Jasira, a Lebanese-American girl, lives with her mother in Syracuse, New York. When her mother's live-in boyfriend helps Jasira shave her pubic hair, her mother sends Jasira to live with her old-fashioned and domineering Lebanese father Rifat in suburban Houston, Texas. Jasira is treated as a second class citizen by her overprotective father. He is strict, does not allow her to use tampons, 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 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.