Festivals: Gorgonà (2025) by Evi Kalogiropoulou: Sisters of Stone and Smoke — Rebellion in the Ruins of Tomorrow

Why It Is Trending: Mythology Meets Modern Resistance

In Gorgonà, Greek director Evi Kalogiropoulou reimagines myth, machinery, and womanhood in a stunning fusion of sci-fi dystopia and feminist allegory.Set in a near-future industrial city-state suffocating under patriarchy and pollution, the film follows two women who revolt against their world’s decaying systems — and, in the process, become symbols of defiance and rebirth.

Errika Bigiou and Xenia Dania lead the story with electrifying presence, embodying both vulnerability and strength. Their struggle is not just against tyranny, but against the erasure of identity itself. Through haunting imagery, sculptural landscapes, and visceral sound design, Gorgonà transforms female resistance into a myth reborn.

Since its Venice Critics’ Week premiere, Gorgonà has captured global attention as one of the boldest Greek debuts of 2025.Its fusion of Greek mythic symbolism, feminist politics, and dystopian aesthetics places Kalogiropoulou alongside visionary voices like Yorgos Lanthimos and Julia Ducournau, though her voice is distinct — tactile, tender, and defiantly female.

The film’s title evokes Medusa (Γοργόνα) — the monster-myth turned metaphor for women’s rage and misrepresentation. Here, “Gorgonà” becomes both name and manifesto: women weaponizing their pain to shatter oppression.

It’s trending not just as art-house sci-fi, but as a feminist call to arms — one that pulses with industrial beauty and mythological fury.

Why to Watch This Movie: Myth, Machines, and Matriarchy Rising

Kalogiropoulou’s debut rewards both the senses and the intellect.

• Genre reinvention: A dystopia filtered through Greek folklore, bridging ancient and future myth.

• Feminist allegory: Two women reclaim their bodies and autonomy within a collapsing male order.

• Striking visuals: Concrete temples, steel ruins, and ritualistic choreography evoke both tragedy and transcendence.

• Innovative soundscape: The hum of factories becomes an operatic pulse of revolt.

• Emotional intimacy: Beneath the revolution, the story is deeply personal — two women’s love, fear, and survival.

It’s a film where oppression looks like marble, and freedom sounds like thunder.

Where to watch: https://online.filmfestival.gr/film/gorgona/ (available until November 10th)

Link IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt37678610/

Link Review: https://cineuropa.org/en/newsdetail/482834/

About movie: https://playtime.group/film/6762aec056675e0002f18bde

What Trend Is Followed: Dystopian Feminism and Greek Mythic Sci-Fi

Gorgonà joins a global movement of female-led dystopian cinema, alongside The Woman King, Poor Things, and The Handmaid’s Tale.But its DNA is uniquely Mediterranean — rooted in mythic archetypes and post-crisis Greek reality.

This is the new Greek Sci-Fi Renaissance — a wave of filmmakers using surrealism and futurism to critique patriarchy, pollution, and systemic decay.Kalogiropoulou’s Gorgonà stands at the vanguard: a myth for the Anthropocene.

Movie Plot: From Captivity to Creation

Gorgonà unfolds as both myth and memory — a rebellion carved into the ruins of a fallen civilization.

• Act I – The City of Dust: In a polluted, patriarchal megacity where women are property, two laborers — Ari and Nysa — live under constant surveillance.

• Act II – The Encounter: After meeting in the factory’s forbidden zones, their friendship grows into intimacy and defiance.

• Act III – The Awakening: They discover remnants of an ancient cult that worshipped the Gorgon as a goddess of rebellion. Their awakening becomes ritual.

• Act IV – The Uprising: The women lead an underground revolt, using the symbols of the old myths to unite the oppressed.

• Finale – The Transformation: In the film’s poetic closing, the city turns to stone — but not in death. It becomes a monument to freedom.

Tagline: Stone remembers. Flesh revolts.

Director’s Vision: Evi Kalogiropoulou and the Mythic Machine

Evi Kalogiropoulou, a Greek multimedia artist and filmmaker, brings her fine-arts background to the screen with hypnotic precision.

• Artistic hybridity: Blending performance art, installation design, and cinema, she crafts a world that feels sculpted, not filmed.

• Eco-feminist futurism: Pollution and patriarchy become intertwined evils — environmental decay as a mirror of moral collapse.

• Greek myth revived: The Gorgon myth is reclaimed — not as horror, but as heritage.

• Body as rebellion: Her female leads move like dancers in protest — the choreography of survival.

• Collaborative energy: Co-written with Louise Groult, the script mixes industrial realism with poetic minimalism.

Kalogiropoulou’s vision is both ancient and avant-garde — a myth told through metal and memory.

Themes: Resistance, Identity, and the Rebirth of Myth

Beneath its genre surface, Gorgonà pulses with philosophical inquiry and emotional fire.

• Patriarchy as empire: The dystopian city becomes an allegory for gendered control systems.

• Female rebellion: The heroines’ journey echoes Medusa — vilified women reclaiming their power.

• Pollution as oppression: Toxicity is both environmental and moral; survival is an act of purity.

• Queer intimacy: Love between women becomes the last form of truth in a society built on lies.

• Transformation through resistance: Freedom is not escape — it’s evolution.

The film’s emotional core is this: Even in concrete cages, myths still breathe.

Key Success Factors: Visionary Design and Emotional Intelligence

What makes Gorgonà a standout debut is its complete fusion of aesthetics and emotion.

• Production design: Industrial ruins reimagined as sacred spaces of revolt.

• Performative direction: The leads’ movements evoke ritual and rebellion.

• Visual tone: Cinematography balances decay and divinity — every frame like a fresco of the future.

• Philosophical depth: The film redefines resistance as both internal and collective.

• Cultural resonance: Speaks to Greece’s generational trauma and rebirth through art.

Kalogiropoulou delivers a sensory revolution disguised as cinema.

Awards and Nominations: Festival Triumphs and Global Buzz

Premiering at Venice Critics’ Week 2025, Gorgonà earned two international nominations — for Best Debut Feature and Artistic Achievement in Production Design.Its success at Thessaloniki International Film Festival further cemented Kalogiropoulou as one of the boldest female voices in European genre cinema.

The film’s mix of mythic depth and visual experimentation is already making it a cult favorite on the festival circuit.

Critics Reception: When Myth Becomes Metal

Summary: Critics hailed Gorgonà as a genre-defying triumph — a feminist, eco-political myth for the modern age.

• Variety: “A visionary debut — part dystopia, part poem, wholly unforgettable.”→ Praised its world-building and female-centered storytelling.

• Cineuropa: “Kalogiropoulou forges a new language of resistance — lyrical, industrial, divine.”

• Screen Daily: “Greece’s answer to Mad Max: Fury Road — but filtered through marble and myth.”

Reviews: A New Feminist Myth Is Born

Summary: Audiences embraced Gorgonà for its originality, atmosphere, and defiant emotional power.

• Letterboxd: “A feminist Blade Runner carved in stone.”

• Festivalgoers: Described it as “a cinematic ritual — both terrifying and transcendent.”

• Social media: Applauded its eco-feminist message and queer representation: “Greek cinema just got metal.”

The consensus? Gorgonà doesn’t just tell a story — it summons a movement.

Release Dates

• Theatrical Release: August 31, 2025 (Italy)

• Streaming Release: January 2026 on MUBI and ArteKino International

What Movie Trend the Film Is Following: Feminist Sci-Fi and Post-Weird Greek Cinema

Following in the lineage of the Greek Weird Wave, Gorgonà transforms absurdism into activism.It stands alongside the global feminist dystopia trend — films that replace patriarchal apocalypse with matriarchal survival.

Comparable to Poor Things, The Matrix Resurrections, and I’m Your Man, Gorgonà fuses philosophy and futurism with emotional rebellion.

What Big Social Trend It Is Following: Environmental Feminism and Post-Crisis Identity

At its core, Gorgonà mirrors 21st-century anxieties — pollution, inequality, authoritarianism, and gender control.But through mythic storytelling, it offers catharsis — a belief that art and resistance are forms of rebirth.

It reflects the shift toward eco-feminist consciousness, where environmental and social liberation are one and the same.

Final Verdict: The Revolution Will Be Mythological

Gorgonà is a cinematic invocation — part sci-fi fable, part ritual of rebirth.Evi Kalogiropoulou transforms Greek myth into a futuristic protest poem, reminding us that the fight for identity is the oldest story of all.

Visually fierce and emotionally resonant, it marks the arrival of a filmmaker who sculpts revolution out of ruins.A film not to be watched — but experienced.

Key Trend Highlighted:

The rise of mythic feminist dystopia — blending political rebellion, mythology, and environmental consciousness in European cinema.

Key Insight:

Audiences crave stories where the end of the world feels like a beginning — led not by heroes, but by women who refuse to vanish.

Similar Movies: Resistance, Myth, and Female Rebirth

Films that echo Gorgonà’s spirit of defiance and transformation.

• Poor Things (2023) – Female autonomy reborn through absurdist science.

• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Feminist rebellion in a desert of patriarchy.

• Alphaville (1965) – Love and resistance in a totalitarian city.

• The Hunger Games (2012) – Survival and symbolism under systemic control.

• Medea (1969) – Pasolini’s mythic portrait of female vengeance and exile.

• Apples (2020) – Greek surrealism as existential allegory.

Each of these, like Gorgonà, proves that myth never dies — it just evolves with the rebels who dare to tell it again.