¿Quién diablos es Yuliet?

An appropriate festival film that tackled the senses with its incorporated style of documentary, feature film and music clip. The story of a sixteen year old Cuban girl is told through some stunning photography, flashy editing and a MTV style of camera work, (really, Godard was doing this with BREATHLESS in 1959). The life of Juliette, (or is it Yuliette?), crosses paths with a model. They star in a video clip together and the story spreads from there as they both dwell on their lives and the whereabouts of their fathers. I realised midway through that I was grinning at the cheekiness the director, Carlos Marcovich, was up to with a story well told but possibly too long. And from where I was sitting there was a fair few people heading for the exit. They didn't seem to have the patience for the cheeky Juliette, or for that matter, the style of the direction.

WHO THE HELL IS JULIETTE? is a flimsy premise for a film, however it certainly demonstrates how an astute director can present a non-linear story with a maximum of artistic beauty and emotional warmth. Carlos Marcovich has created a most unusual quasi-documentary about the making of one of his music videos in Cuban during the early 1990's. To ramp up the sex appeal for this nondescript power ballad, he included sultry fashion model, Fabiola Quiroz. And, while in the process of filming, they met a quirky gamine by the name of Yuliet Ortega who is every bit as sexy. WHO THE HELL IS JULIETTE? meanders through the histories and back stories of the principle characters, and haphazardly reveals their personalities. And, also the movie examines the lives of people who just happen to wander by as the film is being shot. Much of the movie is gorgeously photographed on location in Havana, and the sun, sky, sex, and sea blend to create a heady concoction more potent than a very strong Cuba Libre. Yuliet is a real life character like nothing that has been seen on film. Probably she is a prostitute, but has such a bright and irreverent personality, that is is nearly impossible not to fall for her charms. She is equal parts smoldering sex siren, and headstrong and intransigent adolescent, and although she lives a very complicated life in an infamous Cuban barrio, she seems to give as good as she gets. WHO THE HELL IS JULIETTE? probably will offend as many viewers as it captivates, but I found the film a refreshing and spirited look at very low budget, almost tacky, tropical hedonism.

This documentary provides an interesting insight into the lives of two very different young women. One (Yuliet) gives us a glimpse of the harsh reality of the life of a young prostitute growing up in Havana Cuba. The other (Fabiola) is an aspiring model on location while shooting a video. While very different, the two share many similarities in that both are young, beautiful, and have had difficult (at best) relationships with their fathers and men in general. These difficulties combined with the dysfunctional nature of their family lives (particularly Yuliet) results in a documentary that delves into the neurosis, depression , and isolation that results from these problems. The movie makes a case for the statement: All men are self-centered, selfish, uncaring jackasses.

I liked this film, even though I was lost most of the times. The subtitles didn't help. White on white doesn't work! I feel I got robbed from a good chunk of the film. But I still liked it. The cinematography is beautiful, the people too. Yuliet and Fabiola have completely different background, but they do have one point in common: they're both fatherless. Along their quest to learn what happened to their father, we get to see what is their daily life. Some scenes are very emotional: the one where Fabiola is crying in silence for example.

Seen at home, in Toronto, on March 14th, 2006.

74/100 (**½)

This is a wonderful, highly original documentary, or is it? I'm not sure whats real or if some parts have been staged, but they depict the lives, dreams and problems of a beautiful Mexican model who is in Cuba shooting a music video and a young local girl who is cast as her sister. The film then shifts focus on the girl and what a girl she is! She's about 13 and can be very innocent and girlish in some scenes, and intelligent beyond her years in other as she speaks her mind in the wonderful Cuban-style gift of gab. Through her eyes we see the poverty that most Cubans endure and learn of the exploitation of children by idiotic foreigners who treat Cuban vacations like a sexual free for all. The girl is one of most powerful protaganist I've seen in a film and one can only hope that she achieves her dreams like those people in films like Hoop Dreams.

What's interesting about the film is the almost surreal tone to the film, using visual gags and free association of images which I found original and funny. Also, the filmmakers made a choice which is one that very few documentary filmmakers make, and that is that they decided to tear down one of the walls, and actually participate in this girls life and try to help her. This if very different from the other films which at times feels like we're being voyeurs on other peoples misery.