Winner of the Un Certain Regard Special Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and Colombia’s submission for the Oscars, “A Poet,” directed by Simón Mesa Soto, skillfully blends wry, uncomfortable comedy with a keen insight into Colombia’s contemporary social landscape.
The film follows middle-aged and erratic, Oscar is a failed writer who has given up on life. Unemployed and living with family, he wanders the streets of Medellín in a drunken stupor, lamenting the state of literature in his home country, where he has succumbed to the cliché of the tortured artist. However, the opportunity to mentor a young student offers a chance at redemption, if he doesn’t screw it up first.
