Fuck the Polis
Rita Azevedo Gomes / Portugal / 2025 / 74 min
The beauty and joy of living and traveling are at the heart of an award-winning, enigmatic work by a renowned Portuguese filmmaker. A cinematic travel diary full of poetry, art, and Greek myths.
An aging Portuguese woman returns to Greece. Fifteen years earlier, she had traveled there alone after learning that she was terminally ill. But today she is still alive and has returned with a group of young travel companions to make a film. Together, the group explores the Greek islands, seeking meaning and beauty through shared experiences, friendship, and, not least, art.
‘Fuck the Polis’ won the grand prize at FIDMarseille and is an enigmatic and thought-provoking work by Portuguese auteur Rita Azevedo Gomes. Based partly on her own experiences and partly on a short story by author João Miguel Fernandes Jorge, it occupies a space somewhere between art, poetry, Lonely Planet, and Greek mythology. A cinematic travel diary, where Albert Camus and the marble statue of Antinous in Delphi easily appear in the same sentence, and where the densely written pages alternate comfortably between Portuguese, Greek, French, and English. The film’s title is taken from graffiti on a wall in Athens.