Macao

A typical swiss is dying but he is not aware of it. He thinks to be on a chinese island.

I can try to give an idea of what MACAO, OR BEYOND THE SEA is about, but be forewarned that it can’t be called an objective description. Synopsizing a film like Macao is tantamount to offering an interpretation of it, and there’s no good reason for my interpretation of MACO to get in the way of yours. Some part of me feels an enormous gratitude for movies that I don’t fully understand. The compulsive legibility of commercial movies — designed to be synopsized in three or four sentences, promoted in one or two catchphrases, represented in a short trailer, consumed in a single gulp — has a tendency over the long haul to give clarity a bad name; Hollywood’s form of lucidity usually rules out feelings, moods, and ideas that can’t be encapsulated so simply. People are fond of comparing movies to dreams, but when was the last time you had a dream that could be synopsized as effortlessly as a Hollywood movie?
Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader. 1989

This is a film of gentle questions to be considered: What is the language of love? In what world does your heart live? What is the mysterious link between language, love, and life itself? MACAO reminds us that we, like a film, are shadows on a screen, briefly flickering, imprinted in the memory of those who loved us.
Beth Eisen, Maine Film Festival