SLAMDANCE FILM FESTIVAL 2026 REVIEW! Co-writer-director Gabriel de Varona and co-writer Kevin Ondarza’s The Old Man and the Parrot is a beautifully insane story about love, redemption, and pursuing dreams on foreign shores. It plays out like a Jared Hess movie, cross-pollinated with Bubba Ho-Tep, all set once upon a time in Miami’s Little Havana.
Praxi (Ruben Rabasa), an aging Cuban exile and former comedian, is wandering the streets carting a taxidermied parrot. The old codger insists the bird is the vessel of the soul of his late partner, Yoelvis (René Lavan), a struggling vegetarian chef with a dream of opening his own business in the United States. The action kicks off when Praxi breaks into the home of Radel (Serafin Falcon), armed with an old, powder-loaded pistol. This was Praxi’s former neighbour, and a backyard alchemist, and it is his curse that is keeping Yoelvis incarcerated in the afterlife.
However, Radel has been rendered mute from a stroke. Praxi must barter and joust then with Radel’s daughter, Ana (Isabella Bobadilla), as the story jumps from present to past, showing the trail of tears and triumphs as Praxi and Yoelvis inspire each other. Their friendship, which blossoms into a relationship, stems from misfortune and misunderstanding. But soon, Yoelvis’s passion for his dream becomes infectious, leaving Praxi with nothing to do to but invest his life in his partner’s vision.
“When Yoelvis catches Praxi conspiring with Radel’s half-assed sorcery, an argument ensues, which reveals a dark secret and leads to the invocation of the curse.”
Still, Praxi is a man torn by opposing passions. While seeking to help his friend, he encounters the interest of his chicken-loving neighbour, Radel, who offers the men his services should they require them. But Yoelvis distrusts the shadowy and concealing character over the fence, and presses Praxi to just help him and work hard. Then all they can dream will be theirs. But Radel proves that he can transfer the souls of loved ones into other objects. When Yoelvis catches Praxi conspiring with Radel’s half-assed sorcery, an argument ensues, which reveals a dark secret and leads to the invocation of the curse.
Rabasa’s performance is funny, sad, silly, and serious. He is whimsically cartoonish yet delivers a resoundingly emotional performance in his first leading role after 40 years in the business. As our avatar went on a journey about finding a warm hearth to rest your heart against, and achieving all of your desires, the actpr shows us that the shedding of hate, fear, and regret is the true freedom we all should seek.
The Old Man and the Parrot is as fun as it is fascinating. Varona poignantly. exquisitely, frames the relationship at the center of his bright, buoyant, and bat-s**t-crazy dramedy.
The Old Man and the Parrot screened at the 2026 Slamdance Film Festival.
"…funny, sad, silly and serious."
