Towelhead

Towelhead is a 2008 American drama about Jasira Maroun, a thirteen-year-old Arab-American girl living in a Houston suburb during the Gulf War. Sent to live with her strict Lebanese father after her American mother objects to the attention her boyfriend pays the girl, Jasira is caught between her emerging sexuality and the disapproval around her. She develops feelings for a racist Army reservist who lives nearby, while her father's rigid expectations and her schoolmates' hostility over her background leave her isolated.

The film was directed by Alan Ball, who also wrote and produced it, marking his debut as a feature director; his second film as director, Uncle Frank, followed in 2020. Summer Bishil plays Jasira, with Aaron Eckhart as Mr. Vuoso, Toni Collette as Melina Hines, Maria Bello as Gail Monahan, Peter Macdissi as Rifat Maroun and Eugene Jones III as Thomas Bradley.

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.9 from around 12,000 votes, while on TMDB it holds 6.2 from 158 votes, indicating a modest but engaged audience. A critics' rating of 5.9 from 111 reviews places professional assessment below the IMDb audience score. Running 111 minutes, the film was produced by This Is That and Your Face Goes Here Entertainment.