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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Behind the Nunnery Wall

Behind the Nunnery Wall

1928, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 7 parts / 1,989 m

Director:
 Petro Chardynin
Scriptwriter:
 Anastasiia Usatiuk (Tkachyk)*
Cameraman:
 Heorhii Drobin
Artist:
 Heinrich Beisenherz, Serhii Khudiakov
Cast:
 Nina Li (Nastia Lievina, a village woman, nun), Matvii Liarov (Nedzelnytskyi, a landlord), Mykola Kuchynskyi (father Hryhorii, a priest), A. Ostashevskyi (Straton, a bishop), Morshchykova (a superioress), A. Lundina-Nordt (Manefa, a cellaress), Anastasiia Suvorina (an old nun), Arsenii Kuts (Andrii Lievin, her brother), K. Rudakov (a disabled man), A. Bielov (a fat monk), Bielov (a sexton), A. (?) Obukhovych (novitiate Klania)

 

The old nunnery owns the best lands. Nuns rent out the land to local rich men, and exploiting peasants they have a wealthy life. The peasants live in misery. Especially, the family of the peasant named Levin. He is forced to give away his last horse, his son Andrii is imprisoned, his daughter Nastia becomes a maid of a rich landlord. Trying to prevent the master’s harassment, Nastia escapes and gets to the nunnery. She can see the other life of the nuns who manufacture false relics, drink alcohol and kill children. Nastia ends up in the basement for resisting one of the “spiritual pastors.” Meanwhile, her brother Andrii escapes from prison. He stirs up a rebellion and saves his sister.

The film is lost.

*Anastasiia (Nastasia) Usatiuk, who chose the pseudonym “Tkachyk,” used to be a nun of the Protection of the Mother of God Convent in Kyiv, later she became a communist, the head of the Female Department of Kyiv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. It is considered that she wrote the script of the film Behind the Nunnery Wall based on her notes and memories about staying in the nunnery.

The script was approved by VUFKU (chief editor V. Yaroshenko) and sent to the First Film Studio VUFKU to Odesa, where the director P. Chardynin made a film of the same name. According to Yatko’s evidence, Anastasiia Usatiuk died shortly. She did not leave any other works.