Un Poeta

Synopsis

A dark comedy about promise, expectation & failure

After success in his early 20s, Óscar Restrepo's devotion to poetry has ended up taking him nowhere. Now in his 50s, estranged from his daughter and living with his mother, his life has succumbed to a cliché of unemployment, addiction, insanity and depression. Forced into a grade-school teaching job that he doesn't want, an unexpected opportunity to redeem himself arrives in the form of a remarkably talented teenage student. But, will introducing her into the sordid world of the poets only result in making her life as miserable as his own?

Production facts

Colombian screenwriter and director Simón Mesa Soto has previously competed in La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes with Amparo (2021) and the short films Madre and Leidi (which won Best Short Film in 2014).

Swedish co-producers are David Herdies, Michael Krotkiewski and Associate Producer Iman Ismail at Momento Film. The film was created with support from Svenska Filminstitutet and Film i Väst. Parts of the post-production were done by the West Swedish company Nordic United.