A once-celebrated writer chases relevance through petty schemes, fading commissions and awkward self-promotion. Simón Mesa Soto’s character study is biting, funny and deeply attuned to the sadness of creative decline.
Can a good poet be a good person? It’s a fascinating question that weaves through Soto’s smart film.
A Poet 2025
Un poeta
“Oscar Restrepo (Ubeimar Rios) is not an ordinary man. As a poet, he preaches about poetry in the forgotten corners of the world – places where progress never comes. With a failing career and an estranged father, all Oscar wants is to be a successful poet—not for gold or fame, but to pour his devotion into the art, even if it gives nothing back and ruins him.
On this self-destructive journey, he encounters a young girl, Yurlady (Rebeca Andrade), who writes soulful poems that awaken him. As he brings her into his world of poetry – and as she tries to mold herself into a biased art form devoid of meaning – a collision of serendipity and destruction begins, leading to a chaotic discovery.
Simón Mesa Soto’s A Poet is an artsy, mind-bending, yet profoundly effective satire. It carves out something fresh amid chaotic battles of misguided passion and manipulative ambition, anchored by Ubeimar Rios’s deeply satisfying, career-defining performance.” — Niikhiil Akhiil, Film Fest Report