FIST
21st Festival of International Student Theatre (FIST 2026)
SAFE PLACE
from 20th to 24th of May
The times we live in leave little room for compromise. Living in your twenties is challenging enough, but living through them in today’s world, which offers no clear promise of a future, can feel less like a choice and more like an obligation.
Wars, revolutions, violence, defeat; young people in prison, in solitary confinement, beaten and killed in the streets. Unrest, hope, ruins, strength, unease.
In the battles we fight every day, we are often forced to choose perseverance over our own needs. To persist is taken for granted - a responsibility we accept without hesitation.
Each of us, in our own struggle, quietly carries what comes our way, and seeks our own safe place – one that is distinct, personal, and uniquely our own.
What all our safe places have in common is the feeling they give us: the freedom to be vulnerable, along with warmth, and support, reminding us that before facing new battles, we sometimes need to pause and embrace both ourselves and those around us.
This year, FIST is envisioned as such a place - a safe space where every struggle gains a new meaning. A space where we can speak openly about what we feel and what we face, where our troubles are not dismissed, and where even the most overwhelming emotions can be expressed.
This safe place heals us, just enough for us to begin healing ourselves.
This safe place is made of people, someone’s gaze, smile, presence. We are a safe place for one another.
This year’s FIST guides the audience through the eyes of young people confronting wars, revolutions, and the everyday challenges of today’s world. From shared upheavals to intimate stories and questions about the future, the festival explores how identity, choice, and responsibility are shaped in a complex world. In this world, theatre is not escapism - it is a safe place where questioning is not only allowed but necessary. A safe space to search for both personal and collective answers.
The five days of the festival serve as a reminder that struggles matter only if we emerge from them empowered and ready to become better – to one other and to ourselves.
The plays at this year’s FIST speak about the battles that define our time, as well as the wounds they leave behind, reminding us that a safe place does not happen by chance. We build it together, in moments of danger and resistance – and pass it on to those who come after us.
Because FIST, in all its forms over the past 20 years, has been and remains a safe place for new voices that demand to be heard.
MAIN AND ACCOMPANYING PROGRAM OF 21st FIST:
20th of May
Accompanying program
18h / Exhibition THIS IS NOT AN EMPTY MEADOW
Meadow in front of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts
“This Is Not an Empty Meadow” is an open-air exhibition, exploring the meadow next to the Faculty of Dramatic Arts as a space of life, community, and art. Through student artworks, the exhibition questions what is lost when places we consider “empty” disappear.
Umetnici: Milja Vuković, Nikolina Đorđević, Milica Simić, Teodora Kokoruš, Katarina Maričić, Anja Stojanović, Teodora Drina Jevđović, Viktor Cvejić, Jovana Lukić, Mila Projović, Vesna Petrović
Main program
19h / NON PLACE
Greece, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Stage “Mata Milošević”, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
"Non place, a completely fictional tale" is conceived as a visual and physical experience,
where what is shown is often more important than what is explained.
The performance unfolds war as a sequence of carefully composed images, gestures, and
situations that reflect distance, normalization, and selective empathy. War is not presented
directly as a battlefield, but as something observed, consumed, commented on, and
ultimately filtered through comfort, media, and abstraction.
Accompanying program
22:20h / Post-show discussion: THE RIGHT TO A SAFE PLACE
Foyer in front of the stage “Mata Milošević”, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
21st of May
Accompanying program
10h / Workshop YOUR BODY ALREADY KNOWS
Meadow in front of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts
Moderator: Ognjen Malušić, teaching associate in stage movement.
The workshop “Your Body Already Knows” explores play, presence, and non-verbal communication.
Through warm-ups, imagination, and contact improvisation, we explore how the body speaks, reacts, and connects.
What does your body know that you still haven’t said out loud?
And can the body itself become your safe place? The workshop is open to all students, regardless of previous experience. Please bring comfortable clothes and shoes.
Registration is available at the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdiuTItLcyC9v0u_xrWD4lQQsoHsKAiJbTqLpshUKlyIAq0gQ/viewform?usp=publish-editor
Main program
17h / CIRCLE
Iran, Faculty of Arts, Islamic Azad University, Central Tehran Branch
Practice room 8, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
"We are hearing the last heartbeats of Mother-earth..."
In essence, Circle is an exploration of love, responsibility, and the complex relationship between humans and the Earth. The piece is a personal testimony, a poetic reflection, and a call to awareness, blending ritual, dialogue, and physical expression and music to invite the audience into an intimate and immersive experience.
Accompanying program
20h / Post-show discussion: CAN THE PLANET BE A SAFE PLACE?
Practice room 8, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
Main program
19h / THE TRAVELLING TROUPE ŠOPALOVIĆ
Serbia, Academy of Arts, Novi Sad
Stage “Mata Milošević”, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
The Travelling Troupe Šopalović in this production confronts Ljubomir Simović’s classical text with the actors’ personal experiences. Through personal stories, the performance examines the position of art in a time of pressure and prohibitions. Past and present intertwine, erasing the boundary between the stage and reality.
Accompanying program
22:20h / Post-show discussion: ART AS RESISTANCE
Foyer in front of the stage “Mata Milošević”, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
22nd of May
Accompanying program
12h / Psychodrama Workshop: ENCOUNTER AS A SAFE SPACE
Classroom 38, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
Moderators:
Dr. Aleksandra Pavićević, ethnologist, anthropologist, and psychodrama psychotherapist at the Institute for Psychodrama
MA Katarina Arizanović, project manager and psychodrama psychotherapist, Institute for Psychodrama
This workshop is based on the idea of safe place as an inner space we return to when the outside world becomes unstable and overwhelming. In a time when the external world often feels uncertain and overpowering, we turn inward in search of a possible safe place. Through psychodrama-based work, we explore how we experience ourselves, others, and the world around us — where we find meaning, what moves us, and what sustains us.
The number of participants is limited, therefore registration is required and open until all spots are filled.
Registration is available at the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4OIgAYvReKRk1lMXWr2mj6fVGoL1Eh2VS44Yzj3jV7e_LEg/viewform?usp=publish-editor
Main program
17h / EN ATTENTENT
Germany, Academy of Performing Arts Baden-Württemberg
Practice room 14, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
"Marat was not a human being.
He was a beast that devoured the country.
Instead of a new beginning, I saw people rotting away before my eyes."
Charlotte Corday defended her assassination of Jean-Paul Marat during the French Revolution as the only way to save human lives. We set out in search of an alternative form of protest that awakens the energy of all those involved. In the form of a communal water ritual, our Charlotte Corday summons the powers of the community and takes up the challenge of defending her own spaces from autocratic rulers through peaceful resistance.
Accompanying program
17:40h / Post-show discussion: REVOLUTION IS FEMALE
Practice room 14, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
Main program
19h / TO BE A REAL BOY
Slovenia, University of Ljubljana, Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television
Stage “Mata Milošević”, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
How blind are we to the radicalization happening right under our noses? To Be A Real Boy confronts the invisible flow of extremist ideas among the young, highlighting our alarming lack of awareness. A visceral and urgent exploration of the dangerously thin line between an internet meme and real-world violence.
Accompanying program
21:30h / Post-show discussion: MASCULINITY UNDER PRESSURE
Foyer in front of the stage “Mata Milošević”, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
24th of May
Accompanying Program
11h / Psychodrama Workshop: THE STAGE AS A SAFE PLACE
Stage “Mata Milošević”, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
Moderators:
Irena Ristić, theatre director, psychodrama psychotherapist, researcher, writer and professor of psychology at the Faculty of Dramatic Arts
Teodora Denčić, psychologist and trainee at the Institute for Psychodrama
This workshop views a safe place not only as something within us, but as something built through relationships, community, and shared experiences. If a human is a being of roles, then the stage is a space where the personal and the collective meet.
The workshop explores our positions within the community: where we stand, how we change, and how we relate to others.
The number of participants is limited; therefore, registration is required and open until all places are filled.
Registration is available at the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeuDG_kMWKR2vyfzycB9HBUzZnVHPsXjEnbPjluEZPqRSVvEw/viewform?usp=publish-editor
Main program
14h / YAKAMOZ
Switzerland, University of the Arts Bern
Cafe, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
“Kandas and Kurtulmus are spelled with a Ş. The name on my ID is wrong.”
Two Zurich residents with Turkish migration backgrounds drift between two homes — or none at all. Between everyday moments and open confrontation, they face questions of identity, belonging, and being seen as the “other.”
As racism is debated as a macro-topic, this performance zooms in on the micro, the personal, the awkward, the real. Uncomfortable, honest, and darkly funny — because sometimes laughing is the only option.
Accompanying program
15h / Post-show discussion: BEING EUROPEAN TODAY
Cafe, Faculty of Dramatic Arts
Main program
19h / LUNGS
FIST PRODUCTION, Faculty of Dramatic Arts in Belgrade
Little Theatre “Duško Radović”
The play Lungs delves into the intimate world of a young couple confronted with a defining question in their relationship, whether to bring a new life into a world inevitably heading toward ecological and political catastrophe.
Burdened by the present moment and the narratives of the past, the characters are swept into a vortex of their own fears, prejudices, misunderstandings, and profound love, as they struggle to grasp the essence of the question that relentlessly haunts them – what does it truly mean to be a “good person” in the contemporary world?
This year’s FIST is supported by: Goethe-Institute, Swiss Cultural Fund, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Little Theatre “Duško Radović” and Green House Hostel.