A Poet: A Lost Soul in Medellin

 By José Alberto Hermosillo

AFI FEST MOVIE REVIEW: “A Poet” is a captivating Colombian drama with conscience. Its comedic elements soften its darker, yet universal, themes.

The story focuses on Oscar, played by newcomer Ubeimar Rios, who powerfully depicts a middle-aged, frustrated, and depressed alcoholic. Years earlier, he published a book of poems in Medellín. His past achievements, honors, and recognition hold him back from pursuing a career as a poet due to ongoing writer’s block. His life changes when his family urges him to accept a high school teaching position, where he begins to see a glimmer of hope in a talented yet underprivileged student.

Director Simón Mesa Soto, a well-educated high school philosophy teacher in Medellín who speaks fluent English, prefers working with non-professional actors. Soto skillfully condensed and transformed his well-structured and solid second project into an award-winning international success, taking it from Colombia to Cannes, where it won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, and then to Los Angeles, where it served as the official Colombian Oscar entry in the Best International Feature Film category.

Years ago, when he was about to give up filmmaking, he considered becoming the worst version of himself rather than abandoning his passion. While writing the screenplay “A Poet,” he aimed to create an authentic, true-to-himself character. His creative process reflects his genuine beliefs about life. The story begins by highlighting the poet’s struggles, including financial hardship, depression, and alcoholism. The director also mentioned that working as a teacher in Colombia can be tough for making ends meet.

After screening at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles, the confident director said that while he was searching for the right performer, a friend recommended a high school teacher he knew. After seeing him, Simón hired Ubeimar to join the supporting cast to play one of the other poets. He wasn’t initially convinced that Mr. Ríos was the right person to portray the complex role of the true poet he envisioned.

Taking a risk, Simón chose Mr. Ríos to play Oscar, a decision that changed the public’s view of the character. Ríos trained for two months to perfect his acting technique, and he naturally called it a lucky coincidence. In Oscar’s case, his lack of empathy draws others to him, making him the perfect underdog who connects with viewers.

“A Poet” employs a more abstract, atmospheric storytelling style, which Simón described as a return to a rawer approach designed to reconnect with his Colombian audience. He structured the film around a dilemma to reflect the uncertainty in his own life.

On a technical level, shooting on 16mm film gives the project the raw texture the director wanted, resulting in a unique look with vivid colors and sharp resolution.

Oscar is a character lost in the past. Despite facing societal prejudices—along with misunderstandings of minor abuses, battling alcohol and drugs, poverty, and marginalization—he continues on a complex, contradictory path like jazz partiture.

Director Simón Mesa, “APoet.” Photo by José Alberto Hermosillo, wwwFestivalinLA.com

Simón Mesa Soto explained that his motivation for making the film stemmed from his frustration at not being able to work in cinema as often as he wanted. He surprisingly finished “A Poet” in six months, leading up to its Cannes premiere in May 2025. He mentioned a few times how difficult it is to make a film in Colombia. He is the lucky one, compared to others who spend decades in Los Angeles trying to break into Hollywood without any success.

In one of the earliest and most intense scenes in the film about euthanasia, the audience might want to look for the nearest exit. It’s when the poet talks with his elderly and sick mother about helping her die and contemplating suicide— a conflicting and personal choice for viewers like me who value life deeply. I’m glad I stayed until the end to enjoy this magnificent film full of light and meaning.

There’s a noticeable influence of Soto’s work on that of his fellow countryman, Gabriel García Márquez, which is essential to recognize, although Soto disagrees. “A Poet” hints at Latin American magical realism, similar to the works of the Nobel laureate, who also wrote notable screenplays in Mexico and Cuba, including Alberto Isaac’s “En este pueblo no hay ladrones/There are No Thieves in this Village” (1965). Arturo Ripstein’s debut “Time to Die” (1966), Ruy Guerra’s “Erendida” (1983), and Fernando Birri’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” (1988).

“A Poet” continues the tradition of films about suicidal alcoholics; a similar case is presented in Wilder’s “The Lost Weekend,” which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1945 and portrays intense depression and unrelenting drinking. In Mike Figgis’s 1995 film “Leaving Las Vegas,” Oscar-winning Best Actor Nicolas Cage also plays an alcoholic on a suicidal mission.

Despite the tragic and disheartening circumstances, “A Poet” explores themes of innocence, honesty, family values, and awakening—elements that engage the audience and foster appreciation for a genuinely moving work of art.

” A Poet” depicts how society views us when we lose our freedom, trapping us in small shells, isolating us, and dimming our hopes for the future. Here, the future is symbolized by the youth of Latin American countries—a vital fountain of resources. Whether they write poems or work in a nail salon, they still hold on to dreams, goals, and desires.

A Poet - Official trailer (HD)

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A Son of Man: Ecuador Center of “The New World”

By José Alberto Hermosillo

“A Son of Man” Ecuador Center of “The New World” ©2019 Paracas Independent films.

 

“A Son of a Man” is an extraordinary, mystical journey to the heart of Ecuador’s wilderness. A breathtaking experience. 

The architects of this ambitious film, Jamaicanoproblem and Pablo Agüero, found a way to express themselves through the arts by shooting their movie without a script, actors, lighting, or special effects. 

They wanted to move further away from the “Dogma Movement” filmmakers and to work on their real story with real people, without falling into the documentary genre. 

The filmmakers wanted to create a new genre by combining documentary and fiction, yet featuring real-life characters in real situations, interwoven with their amusing histories in their exuberant land.

Lily van Ghemen. Luis Felipe Fernández Salvador y Campodonico. Photo José A. Hermosillo ©2019 Festival in LA

 

“A Son of a Man” vividly recounts the lives of three generations of a wealthy Ecuadorian family. The characters connect with their heritage, descendants, and nature. 

This unbelievable story is told through the eyes of young Pipe, the nickname for Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Boloña.

 

Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Boloña (the son, also known as Pipe), A Son of a Man, ©2019 Paracas Independent films

In this “wild new adventure.” His son Pipe will try to reconcile old disagreements between his father and his deceased grandfather.

In Latin America, people with money send their children abroad to study. In Pipe’s case, his father had him studying at the Shattuck-Saint Mary’s School in Minnesota, where our story begins.

 

Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico (father), A Son of a Man ©2019 Paracas Independent Films

Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico orders his son Pipe to return to join him for an ambitious expedition in search of the lost treasure of the Inca Emperor Atahualpa.

Upon arrival, Pipe notices the sharp differences between the USA and his homeland. What he finds even more startling is to see “Men with Guns” guarding the gate of his father’s estate.

Inside the family’s library, young Pipe sees many pictures of his grandfather’s past glories. They include moments when he was named the most muscular man on earth and when he was John Wayne’s best friend in California.

 

Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico (father), A Son of a Man ©2019 Paracas Independent Films

 

To get to the Incas’ treasure, they have to uncover four stations – the final destination is the one marked with the shape of “Atahualpa’s Tear” - a mythical land. Discovering that place is like seeing a glacier in the jungle. 

Pipe’s Captain America jacket represents the strong influence of Western culture in the so-called “New World” in South America.

 

Pipe and his father, Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico, A Son of a Man, ©2019 Paracas Independent films

The father thinks out loud: “My son, you are not my son. If you think that because you came out of my sperm, you are my son, you are wrong. ‘A son of man’ is not born... it becomes one.” 

 

Pipe and his father, Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico, A Son of a Man, ©2019 Paracas Independent films

The fight between the West and the New World is represented through symbolism. The conflict between the conquistador Francisco Pizarro and the Inca emperor Atahualpa has repercussions in the present. 

The legend says, “Only a dead man can see Atahualpa’s eye.”

Lily van Ghemen, A Son of a Man, ©2019 Paracas Independent films

The presence of the German actress Lily van Ghemen is exquisite, and she plays Lily or “La Rubia.” Her beauty can be compared with the exquisiteness of Elena Rojo, a Mexican performer who played Inez in Werner Herzog’s “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” An influential 1970s film.

 

A Son of a Man ©2019 Paracas Independent films

“A Son of a Man” is fascinating visually speaking, but it needed some trimming and smoother transitions to make its storytelling more fluent and less artsy.  

The raucous music, combined with the gorgeous cinematography, heightens the film’s magical realism. 

Among the authors in the magic realism genre, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Alejandro Jodorowsky, and Arturo Ripstein are notable. In their masterworks, they sought spiritual answers to man’s mission on earth.

In World Cinema, we can find other brilliant productions exploring the New World, such as “The Mission,” “Cabeza de Vaca,” “The Fountain,” “The New World,” and, more recently, Colombia’s Oscar nominee “The Embrace of the Serpent.”

A Son of a Man poster. Photo José A. Hermosillo  ©2019 Festival in LA

According to the filmmakers, this ambitious production was created with love and took ten years. 

“A Son of a Man” represents a healing process - a catharsis to exorcize the commanding presence of the director’s father... a man who influenced him and many more people in his home country.

Lily van Ghemen. Photo José A. Hermosillo ©2019 Festival in LA

In a conversation with Luis Felipe Fernández-Salvador y Campodonico in Westwood, California, he revealed his ambitious attempt to create a new genre in Cinema by producing, at his own expense, an epic film.

 

Luis Felipe is a visionary artist who never attended film school. He only wanted to make a fantastic movie about the history of his homeland and his family, and to give the Ecuadorian people a well-deserved place in Cinema.

 SON OF MAN trailer

José Alberto Hermosillo, Lily van Ghemen. Luis Felipe Fernández Salvador y Campodonico ©2019 Festival in LA

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