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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Blue Package

Blue Package

1926, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6 parts / 1,341 m

Director:
 Favst Lopatynskyi
Scriptwriter:
 Geo Shkurupii, Volodymyr Ihnatovych
Cameraman:
 Oleksii Kaliuzhnyi
Artist:
 Іvan Suvorov
Cast:
 Osyp Merlatti (Tereshchuk, a wealthy rural man), Zinaida Pihulovych (Nadiia Tereshchuk, a wealthy rural woman), Mykhailo Shcherbak (Petro Zub, a worker, messenger of the Red Army), A. (O.?) Symonov (a priest), Strashynskyi (Ostap Haidamaka), Chorniavyi (Hamuz, a haidamaka), Z. Kryha (Vasyl, a worker), Kostiantyn Muzychenko (Ivan, a worker), Heorhii Khymchenko (Hrytsko, a worker), Oleksandr Denysov (Martyn, a haidamaka)

During the liberation struggle in Ukraine, one of the villages is getting ready for a pro-Bolshevik rebellion against haidamakas and the Polish zlachta. The rebel leader Zub offers the rebel committee to establish a contact with the Red Army headquarters under Hurchak located near the village. For this reason, the young worker Petro, Zub’s son, is sent to Hurchak with a package. Petro receives a secret letter. On his way home, Petro visits his girlfriend Nadiika. Her father, a rich man, steals the secret blue package. Petro finds out about this fact only at the rebel camp. His beloved Nadiika saves him from execution as she comes on her horse just on time and returns the blue package stolen by her father.

The film is based on the adventure story In the Name of Discipline by K. Hain.

The film was released on 20 April 1926 in Kyiv and on 16 March 1928 in Moscow. The film is lost.

Libretto

Review, Кіnо №5, 1926