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 Wall

Behind the Wall

Language of the Walls / Who is She? / Unsuccessful Romance

1928, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 7 parts / 1,711 m

Director:
 Amvrosii Buchma
Scriptwriter: 
L. Povolotskyi, Amvrosii Buchma
Cameraman:
Aleksandr Stanke
Artist: 
Heinrich Beisenherz, Ivan Suvorov
Cast:
 Amvrosii Buchma (Yanush Topchynskyi), Mariia Diusimetier (Marta), Polina Skliar-Otava (Klara Slatvynska), Kostiantyn Koshevskyi (four roles: a judge, a prosecutor, an investigator and a defender), Yura Chernyshov, Vasia Liudvynskyi (elevator boys), … Solntsev, P. Osadchyi (a dandy), Nataliia Chernyshova (a hotel maid), Ivan Kapralov, Semen Vlasenko

The film is based on a work of the Russian writer, H. Danylevskyi.

The action takes place in a foreign country. The imprisoned writer Topchynskyi communicates with a prisoner next door by tapping. It turns out to be a girl, and Topchynskyi falls in love with her without seeing. One day, the girl is released, and Topchynskyi manages to escape… On the Riviera he meets a young girl Marta and her sister, an actress, with whom he falls in love. Marta dies soon, and the affair with the actress does not last long, as she cheats on him. Finding out that Marta was the imprisoned girl he used to love, Topchynskyi commits a suicide.

The film was released on 11 May 1928 in Kyiv and on 04 May 1929 in Moscow.

The film is lost.

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