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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Avalanche

Avalanche

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1928, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 7 parts / 2,136 m

Director:
 Ivan Perestiani
Scriptwriter:
 Hlib Zatvornytskyi, Ivan Perestiani (revision)
Cameraman: 
Aleksandr Stanke
Artist:
 Heinrich Beisenherz
Cast:
 Nikolay Panov (Nesterenko, the head of the weather station, Professor of Biology), Nina Li (Halyna, his daughter), Ivan Perestiani (Ivan Chystiakov, Professor of Geology), N. Kreminskyi (Chubovyi, a student Communist), Borys Horskyi (Malinin, Professor Nesterenko’s assistant), N. Mamulaishvili (a porter), M. Mirzoian (an Adzharian, Nesterenko’s servant)

Drama. A weather station in a distant mountain district of the Caucasus. The staff of the station consists of only three people, Nesterenko, the head, his daughter Halyna and his assistant Malinin, an ex-White officer who hates Soviet regime.

Fleeing from a snowslide in the mountains, the intern student Chubovyi, a Communist, finds his way to the station. The weather station is cut from the world because of the avalanche. Malinin sets the food storage on fire hiding some of the stock. The situation at the station is critical. Chubovyi leaves to get some help. Making use of the situation, Malinin tries to rape Halyna. Defending herself, the girl injures Malinin. Forced to escape, he dies attacked by a wolf pack. Chubovyi brings rescuers. Halyna who alienated Chubovyi changes her attitude towards him.

The film was released on 15 October 1928 in Kyiv and on 03 September 1929 in Moscow.

The film is lost.