A POET

Oscar, a fifty-year-old poet living off his mother’s pension, an alcoholic, and bitter man, finds himself facing a personal and financial stalemate. Through acquaintances, he manages to land a job at a high school of a marginalized neighborhood, and meets a student innately talented in poetry. Oscar becomes her self-appointed mentor and tries to introduce her to his literary circle, but her reluctance and a series of unfortunate circumstances will turn his life upside down, providing him with the opportunity to acknowledge his mistakes for the very first time. Awarded the Jury Prize in the “Un Certain Regard” section at Cannes, shot on vivid 16mm film, directed with confidence, and edited with exceptional restraint, the second film of Colombian filmmaker Simón Mesa Soto is one of the finest of the year. Hilarious yet deeply poignant at the same time, A Poet is much more than the witty portrait of a whimsical artist, or a biting satire of the literary world: in Oscar’s face, the face of a character painfully familiar, one sees a tragic hero of our time, who commits, almost ceremoniously, one blunder after the other until the final catharsis. And all this, with an unstoppable, bitter laugh.