Six Feet Under creator and
American Beauty screenwriter
Alan Ball makes his feature directorial debut with this screen adaptation of author Alicia Erian's controversial novel Towelhead. Jasira (Summer Bishil) is a 13-year-old Arab-American who leaves behind her self-centered mother (
Maria Bello) and raptorial boyfriend in favor of living with her stern Lebanese father Rifat (Peter MacDissi). Rifat lives in a modest, suburban Texas home next to a racist reservist (
Aaron Eckhart) and a hormone-driven African-American teen (Eugene Jones) -- the latter of whom quickly becomes Jasira's boyfriend. As America launches their initial invasion of Iraq, Jasira finds herself caught up in a potentially explosive situation that is only compounded by the growing, post-9/11 hysteria about Arabs and the snooping of her pregnant, busybody neighbor (
Toni Collette). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide