Synopsis
What is left when the war is over? Cherry Juice traces this question through a wild and unpredictable night in Sarajevo when Selma, a young Bosnian screenwriter, shares an adventurous encounter with a German actor named Niklas.
Cherry Juice, which takes the viewer from Hamburg to Sarajevo, tells the story of two people for whom cinema means everything. Selma, a Bosnian screenwriter from Sarajevo, has written a screenplay processing her experiences as a refugee in Germany from the Bosnian War. But four weeks before the shoot is scheduled to begin, the project is canceled. While drowning her frustrations in alcohol, Selma fails to inform all of the crew members of the shoot’s cancellation, while a Hamburg-based actor named Niklas is preparing his role for the film—only learning upon his arrival in Sarajevo that the film is no more. Spontaneously, he decides to stay in Sarajevo, where he crosses paths with Selma, and their worlds collide: the pessimistic, reserved Bosnian and the optimistic, charming German, both connected by the same dream of making movies. They spend New Year's Eve together and experience an exciting and life-changing night.
Show Info
Director
Mersiha Husagic
Mersiha Husagic was born in 1989 in former Yugoslavia. In September 1992, she left her home country with her mother because their lives were threatened during the war, meeting her father in Hamburg where he had previously fled due to political persecution. The three spend their first months in a Refugee Home in Hamburg-Altona, later with a German Family under one roof. As a child, Mersiha loved watching films and drawing, and by the time she was in high school she was acting in German film and television productions, later attending acting school in Hamburg and since working as an actress in film and television, mostly for crime series like SOKO Munich. In 2015 she enrolled in The University of Art in Hamburg, directing several short films and a documentary before graduating in 2020 with her feature debut “Cherry Juice”, which she finished in July 2023. Cherry Juice had its World Premiere at the Sarajevo Film Festival in August 2023 and won three prizes at the Avignon Film Festival for Best Feature Film, Best Actor and Best Actress.