The documentary “Fuck the Polis”, which the director Rita Azevedo Gomes made on a journey through Greece, in a reflection on culture and civilization, is being premiered today in Portuguese cinemas.
© Gustavo Bom / Global Images
01/10/2026
by
Lusa
O film arrives at cinemas a year after being distinguished with the grand prize of the Marseille Film Festival in France, where the jury described it as “a free-spirited journey through and beyond what is called Europe and a powerful and funny question about the idea of nation and civilization”.
“Fuck the Polis” is the result of a trip by Rita Azevedo Gomes to the Greek islands, accompanied by a small team that recorded personal accounts and documented literary passages of other authors.
In the film, with an argument by Rita Azevedo Gomes and Regina Guimarães inspired by a short story by João Miguel Fernandes Jorge, the director, Bingham Bryant, Mauro Soares, João Sarantopoulos, Maria Novo, Loukianos Moshonas and Greek singer Maria Farantouri entered.
Accompanying images of the Greek landscapes are excerpts from authors such as Konstandinos Kavafis, John Keats and Albert Camus.
The film transports the viewer “to the cradle of Western civilization, to the core that sustains values and relations in society, to the notion of time and finitude”, says the producer Basilisco Filmes in a press release.
“Fuck the Polis” will be on display in Coimbra, Lisbon, Leiria, Porto and Setúbal.
There are several special sessions with the presence of Rita Azevedo Gomes, especially today, together with poet João Miguel Fernandes Jorge, at Cinema Ideal, in Lisbon.
Casa do Cinema de Coimbra, Cinema Trindade, in Porto, and Centro Cultural Dr. Afonso Rodrigues Pereira, in Lourinhã, are other places where Rita Azevedo Gomes will be present.
Rita Azevedo Gomes, 74 years old, with training in plastic arts, has worked in cinema since the 1970s in various roles, since assistant director to costume designer.
It premiered in 1990, with “The sound of the earth shaking”, having then done works such as “Fragile as the world” (2001), “The vengeance of a woman” (2012), “A português” (2018) and “Trio em Mi Bemol” (2022).
In 2023 he received a career award at the Documentary and Short Film Festival in Bilbao (Zinebi), Spain.