"Put simply, this is one of the best-looking films ever made," Village Voice critic Elliott Stein observed on the occasion of Maclovia's New York revival in 1990. Comparing the film to the more celebrated classic María Candelaria, he observes that in Maclovia "Gabriel Figueroa surpassed himself; the extraordinary compositions-land, sky, faces, fishing boats--seem less applied, more subtle." María Félix and Pedro Armendáriz star in a tale that, like María Candelaria, concerns lovers caught in the tension between an Indian village and the encroaching civilization around it. On an island in the bucolic lake area of Michoacan, a Tarascan fisherman and his sweetheart plan to marry but are thwarted by tribal custom and the unscrupulous wiles of an army sergeant stationed nearby. While exalting, visually and thematically, native societies and their contribution to Mexican culture, this film departs from its predecessor in granting the lovers an alternative to the clash of cultures.