Tempête sur l'Asie

Erich Keith, a hard-edged adventurer played by Conrad Veidt, arrives in Mongolia chasing rumors of rich oil deposits, hoping to seize them for profit and power. He crosses paths with Prinz Ling, portrayed by Sessue Hayakawa, who represents local authority and tradition, and with Suzanne, Jack Murphy and Jimmy, whose loyalties and motives remain unclear. As alliances shift and the harsh steppe tests them, personal ambition collides with political pressures. The film follows their plans, betrayals and negotiations against a backdrop of frontier danger and cultural tension, keeping its core conflicts visible without revealing the final outcomes.

Released in 1938, the picture was directed by Richard Oswald, with story and screenplay credits to Arnold Lipp, T.H. Robert and Jacques Natanson. It stars Conrad Veidt and Sessue Hayakawa among a European cast.

There are no widely recorded major awards or nominations associated with this title. It did not enter the canon of festival prize winners, and contemporary awards listings do not highlight it. Instead, interest in the film tends to be historical, focusing on its place in the performers' filmographies rather than trophy cabinets.

The movie sits within 1930s European adventure cinema and reflects period attitudes toward Asia and resource competition. Its casting of Sessue Hayakawa alongside prominent European actors made it notable at the time, and modern viewers often treat it as an artifact that shows how Western cinema portrayed geopolitical and cultural encounters before World War II.

Critical coverage is limited today, with few detailed modern reviews available. Thematically it deals with resource exploitation, power struggles, and cultural collisions, framed as an adventure with moral ambiguity among protagonists. Its strengths lie in atmosphere and performance, while its perspective and characterizations are often read now through a historical lens that questions the era's assumptions.