Pelo Malo

In this Venezuelan drama, a nine-year-old boy and his widowed mum embark on a battle of wills over straightening his curly hair for a school photo. Junior simply wants to look like the pop singers on TV, but his mother knows that in Caracas's unforgiving public housing such seemingly minor decisions are loaded with cultural significance. With a title that translates as "Bad Hair", the subject might not seem strong enough for an entire feature, yet while director Mariana Rondon's approach is certainly intimate and low-key, the story is genuinely thought-provoking and involving in the way it addresses key questions of ethnicity, sexual stereotyping and individual choice. A steely turn from Samantha Castillo as the tough-love parent and an incredibly natural Samuel Lange as the pre-pubescent lad coping with feelings he can't yet understand make telling contributions to this engrossing portrait of life in Chavez's crumbling social experiment.