This film, much like the Val Lewton-produced movies of the 40s ('Cat People', 'The Seventh Victim'...), belongs to the 'B-cinema of the unseen' - the low budget becomes an asset, and evocating the unknown becomes more important than bluntly showing it. This aspect is especially meaningful here, given the movie's elusive title character. The quest of the film's protagonists symbolizes the general ambition to reach what lies beyond man and his reason; it is the search of mysterious, potentially dangerous knowledge. When the adventurers appear to have reached their goal, deception always ensues and the quest still goes on; the conclusion itself is more open-ended than it may initially seem. It is through the characters' contact with Orient (both its people and environment) that they gradually stop to consider themselves the measure of all things. Man's smallness in the cosmos is illustrated in two ways throughout the film: on the physical plane, Val Guest's widescreen compositions often transform men into ants roaming about in a vast world; on the spiritual plane, the interior scenes show the characters' fears of the unknown take over. Concise and intelligent, this film should be seen.