Un poeta
Óscar once dreamed of a life as a poet. Fame never came, but his obsession with poetry never faded. Older, bitter and unpredictable, he clings to the memory of a career that never truly took off.
Meeting the young Yurlady gives his life a renewed sense of purpose. She comes from a working-class background but possesses a remarkable talent for poetry. Óscar takes her under his wing and introduces her to Medellín’s literary scene. Before long, however, his good intentions become entangled with old frustrations and unfulfilled ambitions. Does he genuinely want to help Yurlady, or is she primarily a chance to redeem his own failure?
UN POETA is Simón Mesa Soto’s most personal film. After his feature debut, he considered giving up filmmaking. He imagined himself at fifty, working as a teacher and looking back on a failed artistic life. Instead of making his protagonist a filmmaker, he chose a poet: an even more utopian figure, according to Mesa Soto.
What does art mean when recognition never comes? Guided by that question, the film deftly balances dark comedy and tragedy, satire and tenderness. Mesa Soto dismantles the romantic image of the self-destructive artist: the drunken, egocentric Bukowski figure who mistakes failure for authenticity.
Yet Óscar is more than the sum of his flaws. In his screen debut, non-professional actor Ubeimar Ríos delivers a heartbreaking performance, portraying him as a man torn between arrogance, despair and vulnerability. Through Óscar, Mesa Soto confronts his own doubts and finds beauty in failure. UN POETA was selected as Colombia’s submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
