Oscar Restrepo (Ubeimar Rios) is a mess who lives with his mom, is unemployed and does not financially or psychologically support his teenage daughter, Daniela (Alisson Correa). When he meets Yurlady Guerrero, (Rebecca Andrade), a fifteen-year-old with a gift for poetry and drawing, he cleans himself up to give her, himself and his daughter a chance at having a better life. Despite his own failures, he introduces her to the local poetry scene in Medellin, Columbia and recognizes soon thereafter that he made a mistake. It is unbelievable that “A Poet” (2025), Columbia’s submission to the 2026 Oscars “Best International Feature” category, is writer and director Simon Mesa Soto’s second film, and most of the actors are non-professionals. Who knew that the world needed a satire about society using a local poetry center as the main location and a nebbish, alcoholic poet who had not published in ages as the protagonist?
“A Poet” is structured in four parts, and during the course of the film, most movie goers are going to find their view of each character changes repeatedly, and no one emerges unscathed, which is impressive because if Mesa Soto had moved even one degree in the wrong direction, he could have been accused of punching down. He takes storylines that would become inspirational dramas with a predictable trajectory and twists them on their head. Horror movies do not scare me, but secondhand embarrassment is my horror movie, and Mesa Soto takes genuinely hilarious moments, mixes it with the potential for worst case scenario, excruciating, real world consequences and raises the stakes. His camera work is like fake documentary workplace series like “Veep,” “Parks and Recreation,” or “The Office” except it is not a fake documentary, and the fourth wall is never broken.
Rios gives a courageous performance as a pathetic man who gets in pointless street debates. When one of Oscar’s friends is clearly scamming him, Oscar does not even have his intelligence to make him redeemable. Still when he begins to change, Rios convinces the audience of Oscar’s sincerity that this time, he is on the right path and means well. He lives with his mom (Margarita Soto), whom he is supposed to be taking care of, and they both act more like kids when they try to take care of each other. It opens with her evading his questions like a naughty child, but when he tries to leverage his caretaking into getting money, she becomes the adult, and he acts like the baby. His sister, Yolanda (Adriana Upegui), tries to straighten him up to no avail, but he has some incentive when he realizes that his daughter is going to college. Yolanda introduces her brother to a friend, William (Javier Castano Vera), to see if he will employ Oscar.
The Pepe Sixto Aguinaga Cultural Center is the only place where Oscar socializes and gets treated with a modicum of respect, but even there, he has an inflated ego compared to reality. Alonso (Humberto Restrepo) is the founder that keeps the place running and moderates events whereas his fellow founder, Efrain Mendoza (Guillermo Cardona), is the well-respected, locally famous face of the poetry center. As “A Poet” continues, Efrain shows how he became famous and his motivation for remaining in the spotlight. The poetry center is low on funds, and they have a symbiotic relationship with a local television morning show to promote their starving artists while sharing the spotlight with a local rapper who later appears on a character’s big screen and makes a baby cry. It is these incisive casual details that flesh out the ecosystem of this world, make it a pleasure to watch and recognizable for anyone with any artistic proclivities who is also trying to make a living.
Andrade is perfect playing a complex character. While genuinely talented, Yurlady notes how this world works, calculates that her fortune has changed and is willing to play the game to get what she really wants, which is not being a poet, but enjoying modest material goods that are ordinarily financially out of reach. Considering that little girls are accused of more bad intentions than grown men, Mesa Soto could have crafted a plot that accidentally made her the villain. Her enormous family also intuit the boon of this opportunity and run the range of sincerely to cynically responding. Her brother (actor unknown) initially is just a part of the cacophony then steals scenes with his eyes, physicality and energy. You will have to watch “A Poet” to know more. Also pay attention in the third part: what they are eating and where the flowers are.
Instead “A Poet” feels more reminiscent of a lighter “Lady Macbeth” (2016) where power and privilege constantly shift without ignoring who is the adult and who is not. Oscar becomes a figure who wants better for the children in his life but does not know how to get it for himself yet still encourages them to follow in his footsteps instead of telling cautionary tales with his advice or not advising them at all. It is a story not told often or one that people confront in their own lives instead preferring to replicate themselves to validate their life choices. Mesa Soto skewers the assumption that achievement should look a certain way and reveals that Oscar may often be at the bottom of the ladder, but he has more company than he thinks. If Mesa Soto slightly dropped the ball, he alludes to the fact that Yurlady does not want to stand out and fails to dispel the possibility that she does not want to be a poet because many girls that age make themselves small to adhere to gender norms.
On the other hand, there is an objective and sincere beauty in the power of words and communicating outside of the spotlight as shown in the last section with a purple glitter notebook. “A Poet” genuinely believes in the power of poetry and what is in the heart of a poet. Mesa Soto does give credit where credit is due, and Oscar is self-aware enough to recognize that Yurlady is a daughter surrogate figure, which leads him to work on his relationship with his daughter. Even though Correa and Rios do not look as if they are related, they act like it, and it is not some saccharine resolution, but grounded.
“A Poet” is the movie that “After the Hunt” (2025) wanted to be. Mesa Soto’s mastery of tone shift, intersectionality, personal dynamics and character development is undeniable. It is a beautiful story in structure and meaning featuring an ensemble cast with less experience and more talent than the average person on screen. Even though Mesa Soto’s film did not get a nomination, it still won.
Here I am
A Man
Old-fashioned dinosaur
Bearer of grievances
Deserving of condemnation
Fragile dreamer
But don’t lose faith yet in this sad poet for he is trying to write a happy poem
