in simon mesa soto “a poet,” Oscar Restrepo is a failed Colombian writer who places a photo of writer José Asuncion Silva on his head. Silva died at the age of 30, and even Oscar would admit that his career would have been much better had he also died young.
Middle-aged Oscar is unemployed, divorced and living with his mother in Medellin. His is also not a case of misunderstood talent. Oscar suffers a self-made disaster. A more successful friend, Efrain, calls him “problem walking”.
“You are a poem,” Efrain tells her. “soo sad.”
But in a group of sad-sack heroes, the Oscar is a triumph. Rios, an amateur actor who squints behind thick glasses and whose arms hang far below his hunched shoulders, creates a portrait of ridiculous perfection at the Oscars: a tortured artist, equal parts comedy and tragedy.
There is nothing lyrical or beautiful about Oscar’s life. This is the man who asks his teenage daughter on a rare visit if he can borrow $10. At the same time, Oscar is a firm believer in the noblest ideals of art. Give him a drink, or a microphone, and he’ll soon be talking about the power of “poesia.” For someone one step away from the gutter, he is comically high-minded.
But it has been several decades since they were published. He declares: “I am a poet.” His sister is right: “You are unemployed.” Nevertheless Oscar manages to get a job teaching at a local high school. The students mostly laugh at him, but Oscar believes that a soft-spoken young woman named Yurlady shows tremendous potential. Salvation for Oscar, perhaps, is at hand.
Yurlady herself has no real literary ambitions. But Oscar, resolving to mentor her, helps her apply to Poetry Viva, a workshop for young writers run by Efrain, a smooth-spoken speaker acclaimed for his writing on social issues. He is the central foil to Oscar – a pompous but savvy achiever who urges Eurlady not to submit her simple-hearted poems but to say something about racism or poverty that will win over the liberal European judges.
In this, Soto’s film is a satirical allegory about the world of art beyond poetry. “A Poet” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, winning an award in the Un Certain Regard section. Soto first made waves at Cannes in 2014 with an award-winning short film. In the intervening years, as a Colombian filmmaker, he has certainly faced some stereotypical expectations. There’s no doubt that the film industry would be more welcoming of Soto’s cartel story than his Medellin-set, Woody Allen-like farce about a failed poet.
But while “A Poet” might remind you of some other films — one chord would be Jefferson’s “American Fiction” — it, like the Oscars, is firmly its own thing. Shot on grainy 16mm, it’s even more rough and dirty around the edges, as if the film has dressed its protagonist.
But if Soto’s film is loose and gritty, its satire is remarkably precise. It is a farce of the creative life where the only pure artistic intention is a joke. Success belongs to hypocrites like Efrain. Yurlady’s working class family only sees the opportunity for money. But Oscar, for all his stupidity, is at least uncompromising. He’s wrong about almost everything, except what really matters.
“A Poet,” a 1-2 special release in theaters Friday, has not been rated by the Motion Picture Association. In Spanish with English subtitles. Running time: 124 minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without any modifications to the text.