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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Night Coachman

Night Coachman

1927, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6 parts / 2,053 m, 54 min

Director:
 Heorhii Tasin
Scriptwriter:
 Moisei (Mykhailo) Zats
Cameraman:
 Albert Kuhn
Artist:
 Heinrich Beisenherz, Yosyp Shpinel
Cast:
 Amvrosii Buchma (Hordii Yaroshchuk, a night coachman), Mariia Diusimetier (Katia, his daughter), Karl Tomskyi (Borys, an undergrounder, Katia’s boyfriend), Yurii Shumskyi (a White counterintelligence officer (Borys Shlikhting started this role)), Borys Shelestov (a White officer)

The tragedy of a “little man” who wants to remain unbiased related to the revolutionary events but is involuntarily drawn into a tragic situation and is forced to do a decisive deed impressed both the Ukrainian and European audience. 

Heorhii Tasin’s Night Coachman is the first Ukrainian film having a true personality instead of cardboard and abstract “pre-revolutionary” characters.

Amvrosii Buchma, one of the best Ukrainian actors of the first half of the 20th century, played a night coachman from Odesa, who lost his daughter because of his recklessness. This film was nearly the first in Ukrainian cinema to successfully represent a dramatic character and marked the turn of Ukrainian cinema towards psychologism.

Editorial script 

Rental card

Сensorial document

Memorandum