30 years after leaving Macao, a Lisbon man returns to rescue his former girlfriend Candy, a transvestite who fears for her life. But everything has changed since his childhood and a mysterious sense of unease now hangs over the one-time Portuguese colony, today Chinese. Ignoring the anonymous warnings he’s received, he wanders through a cityscape stripped of familiar landmarks as he awaits the call that will make everything clear. His accompanying voiceover, anything but linear, takes us through a series of tableaux in which his memories of Macao merge with the present reality, frightening and difficult to grasp. Influenced by experimental film but structured like a detective novel (albeit an atypical one), The Last Time I Saw Macao is a masterpiece of poetic observation. Co-directors Rodrigues (To Die Like A Man) and da Mata (Rodrigues’ regular art director) plunge the viewer into an unknown land, a surprisingly diverse place bubbling with intrigue, and along the way, deliver a message on colonialism and runaway urbanization. Paradoxically, their attention to detail, passion for still shots and intensive use of symmetrical framing keep us holding our breath until the end. Just what is going on offscreen?