In Simón Mesa Soto’s “A Poet,” Oscár Restrepo (Ubeimar Rios) is a failed Columbian writer who keeps a photo of the author José Asunción Silva above his mantle. Silva died at age 30, and even Oscár would admit his own career would be a lot better if he had died young, too.

Mid-aged in Medellín, Oscár is unemployed, divorced and living with his mother (Margarita Soto). His case isn’t one of misunderstood genius, either. Oscár is prone to self-made disaster. A more successful friend, Efraine (Guillermo Cardona), calls him “a walking problem.”

“You’re a poem,” Efraine tells him. “A pretty sad one.”

But in the pantheon of sad-sack protagonists, Oscár is a triumph. Rios, a nonprofessional actor who squints behind thick glasses and whose arms hang stubbornly low from his hunched shoulders, creates in Oscár a figure of farcical perfection: a tortured artist, equal parts comedy and tragedy.

There’s little that’s lyrical or beautiful about Oscár’s life. This is a guy who, on a rare visit to his teenage daughter (Alisson Correa), asks if he can borrow $10. At the same time, Oscár is a stout believer in the grandest ideals of art. Give him a drink, or a microphone, and he’ll soon be rhapsodizing about the power of “poesía.” For someone one step from the gutter, he’s comically high minded.

But it’s been decades since he was published. He declares: “I’m a poet.” His sister corrects: “You’re unemployed.” Yet Oscár manages to land a job teaching at a local high school. The students mostly laugh at him, but Oscár believes one, a soft-spoken young woman named Yurlady (Rebeca Andrade), shows tremendous potential. Redemption for Oscár is, maybe, at hand.

Yurlady, herself, doesn’t have any real literary ambitions. But Oscár, resolving to mentor her, helps her apply to Poetry Viva, a workshop for young writers run by Efraine, a smooth-talker acclaimed for his social issues writing. He’s the central foil to Oscár — a pompous but savvy achiever who urges Yurlady not to submit her simple from-the-heart poems but something about racism or poverty that will win over liberal-minded European judges.

In this, Soto’s film is an ironic allegory about art worlds beyond poetry. “A Poet” premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, winning an award in the Un Certain Regard section. Soto first broke out in Cannes with a prize-winning short in 2014.