A Poet

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1:34

A Poet

Jan 2026

2h 3m

Drama

Comedy

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100%

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49 Reviews

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Fewer than 50 Ratings

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. In a performance marked by darkly comic pathos, first-time actor Ubeimar Rios stars in Simón Mesa Soto's Un Certain Regard Jury Prize-winner A Poet, a raw and riotous farce about how good deeds are often met with the universe's idea of cruel and unusually poetic punishment.

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Critics Consensus

Anchored by writer-director Simón Mesa Soto's wry detail and Ubeimar Rios' brilliantly uneasy performance, A Poet uses the tortured artist archetype to craft a story that's as darkly funny as it is unexpectedly affecting.

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Kimberley Jones

Austin Chronicle

Feb 26

3.5/5

Mesa Soto initially mines wry humor from Oscar’s sad-sackness; he and editor Ricardo Saravia are especially good at scene transitions that land like a punchline, and the marvelous Rios – small of stature and existentially slumped – cuts a comical figure.

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Kat Sachs

Chicago Reader

Feb 11

A Poet is worth seeing for the moments of genuine emotion and elegiac contemplation, the wry humor, Rios’s unguarded performance, and the gritty production design and cinematography.

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Bob Mondello

NPR

Feb 9

Filmmaker Soto casts a skeptical eye on all of this, shooting in grainy 16-millimeter, and using musical scoring to underline the absurdity and pretension.

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Pablo Vázquez

Fotogramas

Mar 10

5/5

Riding scene after scene between tragedy and satire, this is a painfully funny film that skillfully sidesteps the conventions of redemption and transference stories... [Full review in Spanish]

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Dan Tabor

Cinapse

Mar 6

Ultimately, A Poet lands as a devastating yet life-affirming character study about accountability, artistic longing, and the fragile possibility of redemption.

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Dennis Harvey

48 Hills

Feb 20

A Poet is a relatively small story. Still, it traverses a wide arc, starting out as caustic satire, finally arriving at an understated depth and tenderness.

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Dustin S

Feb 17

Charming story, funny and poingant, with plenty of interesting things to say about class, art, and families without hitting you over the head with a message or proselytizing.

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jesse v

Feb 8

"'But I was trying to help' as he says not knowing age boundaries and when to stop being insistent" the movie. The ending was a hard cut unfortunately.

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Candy

11h

This was the most slowest, most tedious movie I think I’ve ever forced myself to sit through. Unsympathetic characters and a really depressing storyline.

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Mark V

@RT45174026 Mar 15

The film was a journey for me starting with distaste to engaged to thoroughly enjoying it. The characters and setting anppeared authentic. The lost, drunken poet struggles to regain the light in his life. The viewer leaves the film hopeful.

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alex B

@RT55994227 Mar 15

It hooks you with this sharp, pitch-black humor that has you laughing one minute and then ends up being an emotional gut-punch. It’s rare to find a movie that manages to be both uncomfortable and deeply moving at the same time.

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Young H

Mar 11

Acting was very good. It is funny and sad and moving.

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Simón Mesa Soto

Director

Ubeimar Rios

Oscar

Rebeca Andrade

Yurlady

Guillermo Cardona

Efraín

Alisson Correa

Daniela

Margarita Soto

Teresita

A Poet: Trailer 1

1:34

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Synopsis

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. In a performance marked by darkly comic pathos, first-time actor Ubeimar Rios stars in Simón Mesa Soto's Un Certain Regard Jury Prize-winner A Poet, a raw and riotous farce about how good deeds are often met with the universe's idea of cruel and unusually poetic punishment.

Director: Simón Mesa Soto
Producer: Simón Mesa Soto, Juan Sarmiento G., Manuel Ruiz Montealegre
Screenwriter: Simón Mesa Soto
Distributor: 1-2 Special
Production Co: Ocúltimo, Medio de Contención Producciones
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Original Language: Spanish
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 30, 2026, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 24, 2026
Box Office (Gross USA): $251.8K
Runtime: 2h 3m

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