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Bitef (The Belgrade International Theatre Festival), Serbia’s largest and oldest international theatre festival, is not taking place this year — at least not in its institutional form. However, under the slogan “Bitef is wherever we gather,” this year’s ne:Bitef will be held from December 15 to 18 at several locations across Belgrade.

Through a series of wrong and unprofessional decisions, a drastic budget cut, the abolition of the artistic director’s position, and finally, open censorship of the program, the founder has taken every step necessary to ensure that Bitef does not take place this year. First, the city authorities stripped it of its autonomy and resources, then postponed and reshaped it, and ultimately attempted to silence it—because even after almost six decades, it has remained free-spirited, critical, loud, and defiant.

But instead of silence and retreat, a determined response came from an informal group of citizens—artists and cultural workers — who are organizing the festival ne:Bitef from December 15 to 18 under the slogan “Bitef is wherever we gather.”

“The smarter one doesn’t yield; the smarter one organizes — a lesson we learned from the student movement. Reacting strongly to the censorship of Bitef, we decided not to accept the erasure of an important history and the living legacy of critical theatre. ne:Bitef is at once a ‘no’ to censorship and a non-institutional, independent Bitef — a continuation of a festival that belongs to the community, not to any secretariat, board, or government,” states the program text accompanying this edition of ne:Bitef.

“The censored Bitef program has become a gathering place: around it, numerous cultural workers, organizations, allies, audiences, and concerned citizens have united. Without funding, with very few resources, but with great enthusiasm, solidarity, and unpaid labor, we are taking responsibility to keep the festival alive — guerrilla-style, across several locations in the city, from December 15 to 18, 2025. In doing so, we show that the scene does not accept censorship and refuses to remain silent about it — as Gisèle Pelicot would say: ‘Shame must change sides.’”

ne:Bitef will officially open on December 15 at 6 p.m. at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts with the performance The Pelicot Trial, created by Milo Rau and Servane Décloux. Through raw documentary theatre based on reading transcripts from a recently concluded court case that shocked the public, the performance exposes a system that allows domestic violence to go unnoticed. Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old French woman who, while unconscious, was raped over the course of several years by her husband together with fifty men he found online, decided to open the trial to the public and “make shame change sides.”

This co-production of the Vienna Festival and the Avignon Festival will be presented in Belgrade by nearly 30 local actors, cultural workers, and activists, known to the public not only for their professional achievements but also for their engagement in the struggle for a better society.

Earlier that day, starting at 12 p.m., the same venue will host a discussion as part of the international campaign Resistance now! Together, launched by the Vienna Festival. Swiss director Milo Rau, the initiator of the campaign, will speak with representatives of the local cultural scene about the repression faced by the cultural sector for resisting autocracy and participating in the fight for social change.

The second day of the festival, December 16, will take place at Magacin in Kraljevića Marka Street under the title They Are Coming, and will be dedicated to young authors whose works the domestic and international public should have encountered during the 59th Bitef. Due to the censorship of the program and the cancellation of the official festival, these young artists have once again—albeit temporarily—been deprived of the opportunity to present their work.

Nevertheless, their works continue to find various paths toward realization and audiences. Starting at 6 p.m., Magacin visitors will be able to see the following performances:

• Dora, or Who Will Stitch the Vests?, an original project by Andreja Kargačin

• Tension, a dance and choreographic research project by Aleksander Zain

• Suicide as a (Social) Fact, directed by Ana Janković

• The Society of the Spectacle: Self-Management Diversions, an original project by the Action Committee, a collective of students from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts

On the following day, December 17, at the Centre for Cultural Decontamination, the audience will be able to watch a screening of Bratija (Bros) by Romeo Castellucci and Scott Gibbons, starting at 6 p.m. Bratija addresses police brutality — more precisely, the phenomenon of mass, male, institutionalized violence. Working with both professional performers and non-professionals, Castellucci once again employs techniques of nonverbal theatre, creating a complex symbolic work composed of rich, poetic images that allow for multiple interpretations. On the occasion of presenting the recording of Bratija, the director will address the audience via video message.