Nine-year-old Junior has bad hair, or so he believes. He would much rather havestraight hair like his mother, Marta. Living in a run-down tenement flat in aVenezuelan city, he finds inspiration in the televised beauty pageants that he watcheswith his friend. Together they plan to have their school photos taken in costume: he asa straight-haired singer and she as a beauty queen. Unfortunately for Junior, hismother doesn’t share his interest in pageantry and hair relaxers. On the contrary, sheis terrified that these are early signs of her son’s dormant sexuality and responds withhomophobic hostility, threatening to cut his hair or ship him off to live with hisgrandmother.
Winner, Best Film, San Sebastián Film Festival
With a startlingly raw performance from Samantha Castillo as the hard-headed Martaand an endearing introduction to the young Samuel Lange Zambrano as Junior, thislow budget, guerrilla-style feature outlines the complexities of mother-sonrelationships as Junior struggles to gain acceptance in his mother’s eyes and Marta issimultaneously forced to confront her own fears and prejudices.
Dave Desmond
‘MarianaRondón’s impressively multilayered drama brings a powerful specificity tothe story of a boy and his embittered single mother’
Variety
