ne:Bitef 2025

One of the largest and oldest regional theatre festivals, Bitef, is not happening this year. At least not in its institutional form. Through systematic dismantling of the festival’s position and open censorship, the authorities of the City of Belgrade have done everything to ensure that Bitef  (which, after nearly six decades, has remained free-spirited, critical, outspoken, and rebellious) does not take place this year.

But instead of silence and withdrawal, a determined response followed. “The wiser side does not back down; the wiser side organizes” –  this is the lesson we learned from the student movement. Numerous actors of Serbian and European theatre reacted strongly to the censorship of Bitef and arrived at the idea of ne:Bitef 2025 under the slogan “Bitef is wherever we gather!” They refused to accept the erasure of an important history and the living legacy of critical theatre. ne:Bitef is a “no” to censorship and a continuation of a festival that belongs to the community, not to any secretariat, committee, or government. It is a non-institutional, independent Bitef.

ne:Bitef will officially open on 15 December at 6 p.m. at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade with the performance The Pelicot Trial, created by Milo Rau and Servane Décle.
A live video stream of the opening performance will be shown in the Slovenian National Theatre Drama.

Through a documentary staging of reading the transcripts of a recent court case that shocked the public, the performance exposes the mechanisms of a social system in which domestic and sexual violence can remain overlooked again and again.

Gisèle Pelicot, a seventy-two-year-old French woman who, while unconscious, was raped for years by her husband together with fifty men he found online, decided to open the trial to the public so that “the shame is moved to the other side.”

This co-production of Wiener Festwochen and Festival d’Avignon will be presented in Belgrade by nearly 30 local actresses and actors, cultural workers, and activists, known to the public both for their professional achievements and for their engagement in building a better society.

In addition to numerous examples from the international scene, the idea of ne:Bitef and the team working on its realization have received extraordinary support from cultural workers from across the region, who felt the need to stand alongside their colleagues from Serbia resisting autocracy, brutal repression, and systemic violence. Since its beginnings, the strength of Bitef has shown itself in creating connections and building cultural bridges. During the Cold War, it was considered a global Mecca of theatre art. It brought together dissident artists from the Eastern Bloc as well as artists from the West critical of capitalism, and presented new works and anti-colonial practices from non-aligned countries. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Bitef persisted as a festival of regional importance, networking authors from the region and linking them with the global theatre scene.

This guerrilla edition of the festival proves that Bitef remains untamed, rebellious, and committed to dreams of freedom. The cultural workers and audiences who join the idea of ne:Bitef and organize screenings of the live-streamed performance The Pelicot Trial demonstrate that Bitef continues to be an indelible part of the region’s culture of community and solidarity.