VUFKU (All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration) existed for less than nine years (1922-1930), but it managed to release over 140 fiction films, several hundreds of non-fiction films and newsreels, dozens of animations, gain fame of “Ukrainian Hollywood,” and take under its control all aspects of the cinematic process – filmmaking, distribution, film press, propaganda, and education. From over 140 full-length fiction films made by VUFKU, about 60 films are considered lost. A lot of the surviving films have come down to us incomplete (without one or more parts).

The website VUFKU. Lost&Found is the first online collection of Dovzhenko-Centre’s media library and is perhaps the only online resource providing comprehensive information on VUFKU.

The mission of the VUFKU. Lost&Found project is to search and return to Ukraine the lost films of the 1920s. Traces of some of the lost films of that time can be found in international archives. Meanwhile, we are collecting archive materials about the lost films, restoring their contents, learning the context of their release.

These searches and analysis, restoration of films and their return to the cultural circulation require financial support. Donating to our fundraising campaign, which will start in October 2019, you will be able to contribute to the restoration of Ukrainian cinema.

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Benia Kryk

Benia Kryk

Benia Kryk's Career

1927, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 7 parts / 2,210 m

Director: 
Volodymyr Vilner
Scriptwriter:
 Isaac Babel
Cameraman:
 Oleksii Kaliuzhnyi
Artist:
 Heinrich Beisenherz
Cast:
 Yurii Shumskyi (Benia Kryk, a robber from Odesa), Matvii Liarov (Mendel Kryk, a drayman, Benia Kryk’s father), Anna Horicheva (Dvoira, Benia’s sister), A. (O.?) Vabnyk (her fiancé), Mykola Nademskyi (Kolka Pakovskyi, a robber), Teodor Brainin (Levko Byk, a robber), Heorhii Astafiev (a Tatar robber), A. (O.?) Sashyn (Savelii Butsis, a robber), M. Smolenskyi [Solomenskyi] (Marants, a robber-traitor), Leo/nid/ Brantse (Muginstein, a banker), Anastasiia Kozhevnikova (a Roma woman), Ivan Zamychkovskyi (Hlechyk, a bailiff), Mykola Kuchynskyi (Sokovych, a district police officer), K. Saksahanska (his wife), Sergey Minin (Sobkov, a commissar), I. Syzov (Kochetkov, his assistant), Leonid Chembarskyi (an auctioneer at Fankoni café)

 

Benia Kryk is the first Isaac Babel’s significant work in cinema. It is an original film based on Odesa Tales. The author added an episode of Benia Kryk’s death during the civil war to the film. A legendary personality of gangster Odesa of those years, Mishka Yaponchik, was Babel’s inspiration for the film protagonist.

In the episode of the banker Muginstein’s funeral staging, the rabbi who used to participate in the real funeral of the real Muginstein was filmed.

The film was forbidden. The script was published as a book in 1926 and then in the late 1980s – early 1990s as part of Isaac Babel’s selected works.

The film was released on 18 January 1927 in Kyiv