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 Yugoslav 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 an 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; both eventually finding salvation in a deep moment of honesty and sharing with one another.

What does war leave behind? And how does one deal with war in the world to begin with? Through my personal experience with the Bosnian War, these questions drive me: I remember the sounds of bombs, my parents living in fear, the soldiers in our apartment searching for my father. When I asked my mother what the war left behind, she responded “an empty soul”. I have never forgotten this sentence. But our family was very lucky that we survived—many people didn’t—and the ongoing war in Ukraine, where some refugees will be luckier than others, takes me back to my own experiences as a child. As a filmmaker I want to engage with these universal questions of life, by exploring the human soul in a world where beauty and war are intertwined.