A Poet follows Oscar Restrepo, a man who has been long obsessed with poetry and its ability to express anything and everything. In this vein, he has dedicated his life to it. Remaining unemployed with few awards and even less money to his name, Oscar quickly is forced by his family to do something else. Oscar begins to try to live his dream through the new students he tries to teach, including one particularly gifted student named Yurlady. The two of them develop a bond but, when the line between teacher and student is crossed, Oscar’s life begins to spiral.
The film has lots of tragic comedy moments. It uses a documentary style to bring out both the humour in the small situations and the tragedy and sadness of this character. Oscar is not a bad person. However, he has two clear vices that stop him from doing better. These are explored well and, while he is a character who stays true to who he is, he also learns to care about the people who connect with poetry, rather than just the poetry itself. His dedication to being himself contrasts nicely against other characters who would rather use their art to sell and show a fake version of themselves. Oscar remains true to who he is and cares for people, even if he is seen as a bad person. This contrast of a good but flawed man against a world that seems driven to make his life worse makes this film both very human very relatable. We feel pity for him for his terrible mistakes but then you also feel bad that he is being portrayed in an unfair light.
The music selections are very enjoyable with lots of classic and jazz style melodies particularly the use of the saxophone was very interesting. It is an entertaining film that I would recommend.
A Poet is playing at TIFF ’25. For more information, click here.
