„Do not underestimate the power of solidarity“
Interview with Milo Rau about the 59th edition of BITEF Festival:
(27 October 2025)
Last September, could you have imagined the consequences your opening speech at the 58th Bitef Festival would have?
As far as I know, none of my critics heard or even read the speech. It was a kind of love letter to BITEF, to Belgrade, to Serbia, to theater, to humanity, to nature, ending with: "Let us thus celebrate Beauty, togetherness, and respect, here in Belgrade, and wherever we are." The only "scandalous" thing about my speech was its perhaps naive humanism, right? When I heard that Nikita Milivojevic had been fired because of my speech, I was deeply confused; I simply couldn't believe it. It felt like something out of a Franz Kafka novel, which of course says more about the absurdity and unreality of Serbian cultural policy than it does about Kafka. The only person I had gently criticized in the speech was my own chancellor, Mr. Scholz, because of the German support of Rio Tinto's disastrous lithium mining in Serbia. But it has since become clear that the Serbian government was merely looking for a pretext to destroy the BITEF festival. Which, unfortunately, they have almost succeeded in doing.
During the Wiener Festwochen this spring, it was announced that the festival would continue collaborating with Bitef, with more news to come. How do the recent reports of censorship from Belgrade affect this collaboration?
If the current artistic director does indeed resign, the show “The Pelicot Trial,” produced by the Vienna Festival and the Festival d'Avignon, is canceled, and the program is curated by the board against all rules, it will be impossible for us and for all other artists and producers with a minimum of integrity to continue cooperating with BITEF. Then Serbia will be ruled by Russian conditions, if you'll excuse the comparison, and Europe's only response can be a boycott. As one intellectual said, under these circumstances, it would be better for BITEF to cease to exist altogether. Once again, I don't understand any of this. Why destroy a festival as rich in tradition as BITEF for no reason at all? It makes me very sad. But I hope it's not too late.
In their public statements, Miloš Lolić and Borisav Matić, as well as the Chair of the Board, Svetozar Cvetković — who was the only member to vote in favor of the proposed program and your production — said that other board members did not even discuss the artistic quality of the piece, and that your name alone was seen as problematic. What does that tell you?
I think it says something about the situation in Serbia: a situation in which people are declared persona non grata for no apparent reason, in which politics interferes with art, and in which the people who should be protecting artistic freedom—in this case, the Board—do the opposite. I love Serbian artists and Serbian audiences, I love BITEF, which is why this hurts me so much. And even if you don't like me personally, which I can completely understand, there is still the project itself: “The Pelicot Trial”, celebrated by audiences and the media, a play about a European icon of dignity, produced by the two biggest festivals on the continent. Who could be so crazy as to spit on all of that? “Shame must change sides,” as Gisèle Pelicot says about her rapists, and this applies here to those responsible for this whole absurd affair: they should be ashamed. Their behavior is unprofessional, disrespectful and destructive.
We are witnessing growing restrictions on freedom of speech and artistic expression across Europe. Your Resistance Now campaign calls for transnational solidarity among cultural workers. What can artists do to protect the values they stand for?
Above all, we must understand that this is not just about a play, not just about a festival, and ultimately not just about Serbia, but about the destruction of liberal democracy. When politicians start dismissing people and canceling plays based on rumors, when censorship replaces freedom of art and expression, then it is only a short step to the establishment of a dictatorship. And here it is very important that we show solidarity, that we say together, as artists, as producers, as citizens, but also as a network of 200 art institutions which is the „Resistance Now“ campaign: No! We will not let our artistic freedom be taken away! We will not go along with it! All I can say to those responsible for this affair is: Do not underestimate the power of solidarity! There are many of us, and we are very well connected.
What memories do you associate with Bitef? Your works have been presented there before — do you see a chance of returning to Belgrade in the future?
I have many memories of Belgrade, and I spoke about them in my unfortunately now famous speech in September 2024. I have researched and staged productions here, I have brought guest performances to Belgrade, and for some time now, the Vienna Festival and I have been working closely with BITEF. If necessary, I will come to Belgrade illegally to see my friends! As I said, since Nikita Milivojevic's dismissal, this whole story seems to me like a novel by Franz Kafka. “Someone must have slandered Josef K., for without having done anything wrong,” is the famous first sentence Kafka‘s “The Trial.” The same thing happened here: one of Europe's most important festivals, the BITEF was destroyed because of slander and opportunism. And because it's all so absurd, BITEF will prevail in the end. In the end, freedom has always triumphed, not fear. People in Serbia know this better than anywhere else in Europe.
Read the press release from the Artistic Direction team of BITEF 2025; the statement from Milo Rau; the statement from Tiago Rodrigues; the statement from Heidi Wiley.
