The selection duo, Jovan Cirilov, who is one of the BITEF’s founder, and young director Anja Susa,  chose for the 41st BITEF highly diverse forms of scenic expression: examples of extremely new modern dance in its spectacular and minimalist forms, non-verbal theatre of scenes, (post)modernist reconstruction of the avant-garde of the Sixties, the tragicomic eloquence of the age-old dirge, "new circus" with philosophical pretensions, fake realism, Mozart as our contemporary, Shakespeare as a bloody rebel as well as the total negation of the theatre we've known for ages, with bodies which play the part of actors on one side of the ramp, and bodies which play the part of spectators on its other side; this time, it is "man to man" game.The 41st BITEF was opened in Sava Centre by Serbian Minister of Culture Vojislav Brajovic, who is also well known actor and had participated in three plays in previous BITEF. He said that BITEF is one of the world’s most prestigious theatre festivals and has been the lighthouse of art and area of freedom in the past years.
During the 41st BITEF,  called “This is theatre, too”, the theatre goers can see 11 shows from about 10 countries (Israel, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, Croatia, Germany...) on Belgrade stages and for the very first time on Novi Sad stage, too.Some plays are sold out before the Festival was opened, and because of the public demands, Miroslav Krleza’s drama “Pijana noc 1918“ (A Drunken Night in 1918), performed by the “Ulysses“ theatre from Croatia and directed by Lenka Udovicki, will be staged two time on closing evening, on September 30.Much interest is also expressed for the “Macbeth” directed by Jurgen Gosch from Germany, which will be performed on September 29 and 30 in Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad. Among the plays that triggered most interest are also “Brussels” by Romeo Casstellucci from Italy, the master of non-verbal theatre art, at its peak. The tenderness and cruelty expressed by visual means in the forth episode of “Tragedia Endogonidia” talking about the enigma of life.There also “Pupilija Papa Pupilo pa Pupilicki” - reconstruction by Janez Jansa from Slovenia. It is the remake of the famous show of Ljubljana experimental theatre from 1969 which had marked its time.