PELO MALO - BAD HAIR

Junior is nine and lives with his mother Marta and his little brother in a housing block in Caracas. For his school yearbook photo he wants straight hair, like a pop singer, and tries everything that might tame his curls: oil, mayonnaise, the hairdryer. Marta, who has lost her job as a security guard and fights for every bit of work, sees more than a hairstyle in this. She begins to fear her son might be gay, and pushes back against what she does not understand in him, with a harshness that hurts the boy and herself alike. In “Pelo malo” (Venezuela, 2013), Mariana Rondón tells of a child who invents himself, and a mother who will not allow it.

Rondón shoots in the social housing of Caracas, with non-professional actors and a gaze that neither accuses nor flatters; the film’s humour is as casual as its harshness. “Pelo malo” won the Golden Shell in San Sebastián in 2013, the first Venezuelan film ever to do so; further awards followed in Thessaloniki, Mar del Plata and Turin. The film was shown at Around the World in 14 Films in Berlin in 2014.