Storm Over Asia

Plot

In 1918 a young and simple Mongol herdsman and trapper is cheated out of a valuable fox fur by a European capitalist fur trader. Ostracized from the trading post, he escapes to the hills after brawling with the trader who cheated him. In 1920 he becomes a Soviet partisan, and helps the partisans fight for the Soviets against the occupying British army. However he is captured by the British when they try to requisition cattle from the herdsmen at the same time as the commandant meets with a reincarnated Grand Lama. After the trapper is shot, the army discovers an amulet that suggests he is a direct descendant of Genghis Khan. They find him still alive, so the army restores his health and plans to use him as the head of a puppet regime. The trapper is thus thrust into prominence as he is placed in charge of the puppet government. By the end, however, the "puppet" turns against his masters in an outburst of fury.

Historical inaccuracy

It has been pointed out "(1) that the British were never in Mongolia, and (2) that what the cunning Britishmen were doing in the film, the cunning Russians were doing in real life."

Unlike October 1917 or The Battleship Potemkin, which are about revolutions in European Russia, Storm Over Asia concerns itself with the British occupation of Southeastern Siberia and Northern Tibet. The British and the French had supported Russia on a massive scale with war materials. After the treaty, it looked as though much of that material would fall into the hands of the Germans. Under this pretext, Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War began, with the United Kingdom and France sending troops into Russian ports. There were violent confrontations with troops loyal to the Bolsheviks.

Cast

Trivia

In the years 2000 - 2003 the tuvinian band Yat-Kha accompanied the film with their own soundtrack on multiple live-events in the USA and europa.