LOS ANGELES -
With "Towelhead," the story of a Lebanese-American girl
coping with puberty and older men, writer/director Alan Ball returns
to some of the themes he explored in 1999's "American Beauty."
The film, which opened Friday via Warner Independent Pictures, stars Summer Bishil
as the conflicted girl and Aaron Eckhart as her amorous neighbor.
Summer Bishil
Towelhead, he adapted from the book written by Alicia Erian.
The title of the film, which is also the title of Erian's book, is the source of much controversy,
with groups asking Ball and the studio to change the name before the film's release
(they're sticking with Towelhead).
The film's subject matter is also extremely unsettling, and Ball, of course, recognizes that.
"I've certainly been around the country and I've seen
that there is a big audience for this movie,"
said Ball at the film's Los Angeles press day.
"It is uncomfortable. It is unsettling. I think if somebody were to watch this movie
and not be made uncomfortable or unsettled, something's wrong with them.
But if you're a person who does not want to be challenged, you want a kind of movie
experience where you go and you sit back and something washes over you and it's sort
of predigested and you're told what to think and it's the same old mythology,
do not come see this movie. You're not going to like it.
But if you want to be challenged and you want to see something that will force you
to confront some unsettling realities about the culture in which we live,
about an experience that is way more common than it should be,
and that's the kind of material you're drawn to, then you should come see it."
Maria Bello and Summer Bishil
Towelhead features big screen newcomer Summer Bishil as 13 year old Jasira,
a young girl just discovering her sexuality.
Jasira's self-centered mother (played by Maria Bello) sends her to live
with her quick-tempered Lebanese father, Rifat (played by Peter Macdissi),
a move which finds her living on the same cul-de-sac as Travis Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart)
and Melina (Toni Collette). Travis is married, the father of an 8 year old boy,
and an Army reservist.
He's also a racist who finds 13 year old Jasira sexually appealing.
Melina's pregnant, very perceptive, and almost certain there's something inappropriate
going on between her neighbors.
She's also one of the only adults in Jasira's life who treats her with respect.
Alan Ball found Erian's book to be fearless and unflinching, and that's why he wanted
to bring it to life onscreen.
"I loved how it told a story that usually is a story of victimization and turned it into a story
of empowerment. I loved how the book did not judge the characters. It didn't do my thinking for me.
It didn't tell me, 'This guy's bad, this guy's good.' It allowed people to be conflicted.
It allowed Rifat to be abusive, but at the same time really love his daughter.
It allowed Mr. Vuoso to do a horrible thing, but also to be coming from a place of tremendous neediness
and insecurity and loneliness.
It allowed Jasira to be provocative, but not to condemn her for that and not to in any way make it seem
like she deserved what happened."
"It felt very human and ultimately, I would say, redemptive in a way that felt really organic
and not like a tacked on Hollywood happy ending. It really made me feel.
As I got towards the end of the book, I was thinking,
'This is not good. It's not going to turn out good. I'm really upset. This is going to make me mad,'"
confessed Ball.
"Then when I got to the end, I had such a really genuine cathartic sense of relief and joy.
That's pretty rare for me and I thought I would love to at least try to help transfer this story
from the written word to the screen."
Ball's past projects – including American Beauty (he wrote the screenplay)
and Six Feet Under
(Ball created, produced, wrote and directed the HBO series) –
have all featured damaged characters, however he sees more than just the bad in even
some of his most troubled characters.
"Absolutely. Hopefully, even the characters in my work, people who do despicable things
or who are terrible parents or who are unable to hold up their end of a committed relationship,
I still feel for them. I still am sympathetic to them,"
said Ball.
"I still feel like they're humans and they're trying to make sense out of their lives
and they're trying to do the right thing. For whatever reason, they just can't.
To me it's really heartbreaking."
"I definitely see the good in people. Certainly in my own life I strive to be somebody
who is functional and well adjusted and can face conflict in a non-emotional
and non-destructive way, and those are the people I try to surround myself with in my life.
But as characters, they bore me."
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for strong disturbing sexual content and abuse involving a young teen,
and for language.
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