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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Case No 128

Case No 128

Стерта сторінка / Шпигун / Не можна
1927, Перша кінофабрика ВУФКУ (Одеса), 6 ч. / 1737–1750 м

Director: 
Arnold Kordium
Scriptwriter:
 Leonid Hurevych, Mykhailo Kaplan
Cameraman: 
Heorhii Drobin
Artist: 
Ivan Suvorov, Heinrich Beisenherz
Cast:
  Serhii Minin (Kravtsov, a prosecutor), V. Piddubnyi (Prokopchuk, an agent of the State Political Directorate), Borys Shelestov (Vinter, a counterintelligence officer), Yuliia Koshevska (his wife), Leonid Barbe (Banskyi, an intelligence agent), M. Khoroshun (head of the State Political Directorate), Dmytro Fedorovskyi (an agent of the State Political Directorate), K. Radmin (head of a housing cooperative)

All over a sudden, in the street, the prosecutor Kravtsov recognizes the White Guard Vinter, sentenced to execution. The Red Army soldier Prokopchuk was supposed to carry out the sentence, however, it is found out that he felt sorry for the prisoner and released him. The agents of the State Political Directorate hunt down Vinter and the group of “smugglers and spies” headed by him. To catch the criminal, Prokopchuk works as a coastal guard. He tracks down Vinter returning from abroad on a schooner. In a desperate fight Prokopchuk dies with his enemy.

The film was released on 22 March 1927 in Kyiv. In September 1929, the film was demonstrated in the Russian USSR.