A POET
Special Features: Special Presentation
[UN POETA]
Winner of the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Colombian director Simón Mesa Soto’s (AMPARO) delightfully deadpan sophomore feature is an unexpectedly absurdist tragicomedy that smartly explores the challenges of pursuing an artistic life and skewers the sometimes misplaced and contradictory ideals of the creative classes to hilarious effect. Ubeimar Rios delivers a standout performance as the hapless Oscar, a washed-up, once award-winning poet, now living with his acerbic aging mother and spending his time getting thrown out of Medellín’s dive bars, making a spectacle of himself at local poetry events and unsuccessfully trying to reconnect with his teen daughter. When he reluctantly takes a job as a substitute teacher to ease increasing financial woes, he meets Yurlady (Rebeca Andrade), a sharp teenage writer from an impoverished neighborhood, whose raw talent draws him into a not entirely altruistic mentorship role for which he is completely unfit. After he introduces the young poet to Medellín’s literary elite, they go wild for the idea of rescuing her from poverty through art, and a series of increasingly cringeworthy events ensues, revealing the ulterior motives of everyone involved. Shot on grainy 16mm with the immediacy of a verité documentary and the bite of an Armando Iannucci satire, A POET nevertheless consistently conveys its unfortunate central character’s humanity, seamlessly oscillating between barbed comedy and genuine moments of insight about the human condition and our shared foibles. –Abbie Algar
Winner, Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, 2025 Cannes Film Festival. DIR/SCR/PROD Simón Mesa Soto; PROD Manuel Ruiz Montealegre, Juan Sarmiento G. Colombia/Germany/Sweden, 2025, color, 120 min. In Spanish with English subtitles. NOT RATED
Run Time: 120 Minutes
Opening Date: Monday, September 29, 2025
Genre: Comedy, drama