To be honest I was expecting to see more things about the social situation in Caracas. I cannot understand why this movie has won so many awards. It is a film that shows nothing, there is no story to tell here. It is the same Latin cliché but this time without any story to tell. Unnecessary scenes and much time spent in describing situations that add no content to the film.It is clear that the director highlights that rejection of the mother to her son and his "rare" fixation with his look. What remains unexplained however is the empty script along the movie and sometimes it even turns into meaningless (especially during the visits to the doctor when the mother asks him about the tail her son has on his back and its possible relationship with his strange obsession. It was very very disappointing.

"Pelo Malo" may turn out to be one of the great films about childhood. It is also one of the few movies that could loosely fit into the criteria of New Queer Cinema since it deals with the subject of a nine year old boy who almost certainly will grow up gay. He lives in the slums of Caracas with his mother and baby brother and it's his obsession with his hair, among other things, that leads his mother to conclude that he might, indeed, be gay and she's not the type of mother who wants a gay son. Fundamentally the issues on display here are notions of machismo and homophobia and they are treated with a good deal of sensitivity and some humour by the director Mariana Rondon.As the boy, little Samuel Lange Zambrano is really quite extraordinary and Samantha Castillo is equally good as the mother struggling to keep her family together. Indeed, the naturalistic acting of the whole cast is to be commended. This is largely down to the intuitive direction of Rondon whose documentary-style approach is not far removed from Italian neo-realism and, although this is only her third feature in 16 years, marks her out as someone to watch.

'Pelo Malo' means 'Bad Hair' and Junior is a nine year old growing up in a slum project with his single parent mother. He finds it hard to fit in and is constantly mistreated by his mother; this same mother dotes on his baby brother – who happens to have straight hair. Junior has curly hair – but apparently the absent father is the same for both of them.His mother works for poverty wages and is not averse to doing anything to get her old job back as a security guard. Meanwhile poverty sticks to everything around Junior like a bad smell in towering estates that are all concrete and hopelessness – he still manages to dream and see some beauty with the help of his little girl friend. He also wants to be a singer with straight hair and will try any old wives tale to make his curls go straight.This is an unusual film that was said to be a Venezuelan 'Precious' and I can see some parallels but little more than that. It is not a film that will have you 'skyping home' but it will make you think. The cinematography is actually quite good too, but the story did feel a bit padded at times – still it is good to see South America tackling issues of mixed race families, poverty and crime.

One of the hidden gems at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) that really stayed with me is "Bad Hair", an observant character drama from Venezuela that studies poverty and gender norms. I think if you love contemporary indie dramas like "Raising Victor Vargas" and "Pariah", you'll love this one, too.Junior is a 9-10ish yr-old boy who lives with his mom Marta and baby brother in a tenement building inhabited by the working poor. Marta is her own worst enemy, not being able to hold onto steady employment, and we soon see her losing her cleaning job at a rich woman's house when Junior is caught in the lady's jacuzzi when he was supposed to be cleaning it on a day when he's tagged along with her to work.Desperate, she goes to great lengths to get her old security guard job back. Marta is a pretty hot woman, but she's been hardened by her circumstances, and takes things out on Junior, who is an easy target because he's not like most boys.Junior is obsessed with straightening his hair. He dances "funny". He holds long stares at the older teen boy who runs the little convenience stand outside their building. Why does he like that boy? "He has amazing eyes!". Not the right answer for mom, who feels responsible for the idea that her son is going down the gay path.The movie observes their relationship with perception and sensitivity, with one honest scene building upon another. And those two lead performances are excellent. You never catch them acting, particularly by Samuel Lange as Junior, who has a very difficult task of suggesting things about gender and sexuality but in a way that a 10 yr-old doesn't quite understand yet.This is a first-rate coming-of-age story, directed with assurance, with two performances that have stayed with me all week. Wonderful film. Should make it to the art-house circuit by next spring.