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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Blaze the Trail

Blaze the Trail

Two Forces

1929, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6-7 parts / 1,903-1,997 m

Director:
 Pavlo Dolyna
Scriptwriter:
 Yosyp Rutter, B. (?) Dashevskyi
Cameraman:
 O. Lavryk
Artist:
 Yosyp Shpinel
Cast: 
Semen Svashenko (Stepan Voiko, a village activist), A. (Oleksii ?) Kharlamov (Denysenko, a kulak), D. Borysov (grandfather Yavtikhii), Zoia Kurdiumova (Yaryna), I. Hryhoriev (Klym Nosach, a miller), Heorhii Khorkov (Ostap, his son), Anton Klymenko (Novytskyi), Ivan Malikov-Elvorti (Lashevych), T. Hroza (Horpyna), Varvara Kryvoruchko (Mariika), Borys Bezghin (Savenko), Ivan Franko (Tverdochub), O. Appak (Tverdochubykha), T. Danyltseva (Aryna, a farm labourer), Mykola Palnikov (an agriculturist), Pavlo Parubochii, M. Yosypenko (young rural men)

In one of Ukrainian villages, poor peasants with Stepan Voiko, the head of the village council, decide to establish a collective farm. Those peasants who are wealthier disagree.

The meeting is disrupted. Opponents of the idea steal the grain, set the barn on fire and blame the head of the village council. During search and seizure in Voiko’s house, they really find sacks with grains. However, the peasants do not want to believe that the head did the crime, and they find the people who are really guilty. They are arrested. A collective farm emerges in the village.

At the background of social events, a love story of Stepan Voiko and the farm labourer Yaryna unfolds.

The film is lost.