Bad Hair / Pelo malo

Gloomy social conditions in an apartment complex at the edge of Caracas aren't a problem for nine-year-old Junior. It's his hair that ruffles him most since it couldn't be more different from the straight hair of his favourite singers. Towards the end of holidays, he and his friend are preparing for their yearbook photographs. While she wants to turn into a Miss Venezuela, he is trying with equal fervour to tame his curls and look like a pop star in his photo. His mother, who's doing her best to feed and support the family on her own, is driven half mad by his incessant bathroom experiments. She mistakenly tries to normalize him, and although Junior pretends to ignore her constant disciplining, the child's soul, desiring her support, is rebelling. A Venezuelan film about the effort to be truly oneself, which strongly clashes with the obtuseness of his closest ones, thus confronting Junior's innocence with reality while also touching the rarely depicted topic of children's sexual identity. The winner of the prestigious IFF San Sebastian main prize.