19/02/2025 - Based upon her experience as a refugee in Germany, this debut film by Bosnian director and actress Mersiha Husagic reflects upon wounds and human relationships in a post-war context

“Welcome to Hell”, we read on a wall in Sarajevo, thanks to archive images incorporated into Cherry Juice [+see also:
trailer
film profile] which is Bosnian director and actress Mersiha Husagic’s debut film based on her experience as a refugee in Germany during the war in former Yugoslavia. Presented in a world premiere at the 2023 Sarajevo Film Festival before screening in a variety of other film festivals, the movie is due for release in Italian cinemas on 20 February via Lo Scrittoio. “Am I lucky because I survived the war or am I cursed because I lived through it?”, our protagonist Selma (played by the director herself) bitterly reflects in an imaginary conversation with her friend Joe. The film whose screenplay was penned by Selma was cancelled four weeks before filming began, because “they arrested the director”. Whether metacinema or biographical self-reference, Cherry Juice is more reminiscent of Wim Wenders’ The State of Things than François Truffaut’s Day For Night.

Parallel to this, a young German actor called Niklas Dietrich (Niklas Löffler) is getting ready for a tricky part playing a trans woman who works in Hamburg’s red-light district, and he does so by meeting transexual people. The character is the very same Joe to whom Selma turns, but no-one has warned him that the film is no longer being made. He lands in Sarajevo to find no-one waiting for him at the airport. He’s totally embarrassed when he meets Selma, but this feeling soon dissipates with the help of a little alcohol and the mutual attraction they feel for one another, and they end up going on to enjoy a boozed-up New Year’s Eve in the sparkling city of Sarajevo. Painful reflections fade into romantic comedy as the nocturnal adventures of our two new lovers, and comical forays such as the theft of Niklas’ briefcase by three thugs, are resolved by Selma firing shots into the air. The film’s comedy, however, is continually quashed by memories of the war, the scars of which are still evident in Sarajevo: Selma shows Niklas the window of the home of a Chetnik who killed scores of people and got away with it. And an old VHS tape showing atrocious images of the conflict, shot by Selma’s father, is the apex of this poignant, well-structured and memorable story.

Cherry Juice is well made despite its limited budget, and boasts beautiful – notably nocturnal - photography by Oliver Nimz, as well as animated illustrations by Husagic herself, which act as a storyboard and lend form to her thoughts. The film adopts interesting visual approaches, using dreamlike images of buildings where crooked and variable geometry reflects the protagonist’s state of mind. The lead actress’s tormented yet pragmatic performance is convincing in this promising first film, which reflects upon the complexity of human relationships in a post-war context, as well on as our sense of belonging, the bitterness of those who’ve been forced to flee bombs and their feelings of guilt vis-a-vis those who didn’t make it. It’s a movie which makes us think about the wars which are currently underway, where some refugees are luckier than others, like in an horrific game of chance, but it also exudes a feeling of reconciliation. “Come what may, if we choose love instead of fear, nothing bad can happen to us”, the protagonist explains.

Cherry Juice is an independent co-production between Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, France and the USA by Mersiha Husagic and Birgit Gernböck together with Niklas Löffler, Hurmeta and Senad Husagic, and Bertrand Boisselier.

(Translated from Italian)