Who the Hell Is Juliette?

The answer to the question posed in the title is simple. Juliette is a lively and pretty Cuban girl. She is sixteen and lives in Havana. When she was a baby, her father left for the United States hoping that the mother and daughter would follow. However the mother committed suicide and Juliette, brought up by her grandmother, ended up in tourist prostitution. The cheerful and intelligent survivor Juliette claims she doesn’t want to see her father, but it is obvious to everyone that she does. Then Juliette meets Fabiola, a model with green and melancholy eyes who comes to act in a music video in Havana. Juliette’s striking likeness to Fabiola is the reason why she was also hired for the video. The two women become friends at first sight. It becomes apparent that Fabiola does not know her father either. Fabiola arranges an appointment for Juliette with her Mexican agent, while she leaves for New York where Juliette’s father lives. Who the Hell Is Juliette? is difficult to pin down as a film as Marcovich plays with the disappearing boundaries between fiction and documentary. The two young women were filmed for three years in a crucial period of their lives. Marcovich, who was his own cameraman, follows them with his soundman to Havana, Mexico, New York and Los Angeles. When Marcovich intervenes in Juliette’s life story by tracing her father and arranging a meeting, this leads to one of the most moving moments in the film.

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