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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Two Days

Two Days

Three Days / Father and Son

1927, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6 parts / 1,678 m, 60 min.

Director:
 Heorhii Stabovyi
Scriptwriter:
 Solomon Lazurin
Cameraman:
 Danylo Demutskyi
Artist:
 Heinrich Beisenherz
Cast:
 Ivan Zamychkovskyi (Anton, an old doorkeeper), Serhii Minin (Andrii, his son, a Bolshevik), O. Nazarova (a countess), Tarasevych (an earl), Valerii Hakkebush (grammar school student, their son), Mili Taut-Korso (a worker’s wife), Rudakov (a watchman), Oleksandr Cheverov (a physician), N. Sokolova (first maid), Sydorova (second maid), P. (?) Strohanov, Hriunberh, H. Kalmykov, V. Komar, S. Rapoport, K. Fedotov, N. (M.?). Lahutkin (Denikin’s officers), Volodymyr Uralksyi, A[rsenii] Kuts (Red Army soldiers)

 

The Red Army enters the city, while the White Army leaves it. There are only two people in the landlord’s estate, an old doorkeeper and a grammar school student, the landlord’s son. The house is taken by the Red Army detachment, and the doorkeeper’s son Andrii, a Bolshevik, is among them. The old man does not share his beloved son’s views and protects the landlord’s son hiding him in the attic. Next day, the Whites seize the town again, and the doorkeeper hides his son in the same attic. Though in vain, as the landlord’s son turns him over, and the Bolshevik will be executed…

The estate with the Whites in it is burning, the heart of Andrii’s father stops, and then there is a new day… 

Among others, the film was shot in the legendary Maraslis’s summerhouse in Frantsuzkyi boulevard in Odesa, and then in Ashkenazi’s summerhouse. Both buildings still exist today, but they have lost their sophistication and elegance a long time ago. At that time, Maraslis’s summerhouse was not only a legendary place where the local elite gathered, but also a fine example of the garden art which had a huge 40-meter orangery covered in glass and an artificial grotto.

The film was released on 07 November 1927 in Kyiv, and on 25 December 1927 in Moscow.

In October 1928, the film was released in the USA and became the first Ukrainian movie that was distributed in North America.

In 1932, the famous Ukrainian composer Borys Liatoshynskyi wrote the music to the film.

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Editorial script

Censorial document