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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Cross-Country

A Slope / Cross the Crooked Step

1927, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 5 parts / 1,292 m

Director:
 Mark Tereshchenko
Scriptwriter:
 Vasyl Fartuchnyi
Cameraman:
 Fedir Veriho-Darovskyi
Artist:
 Volodymyr Miuller
Cast:
 Mykola Kuchynskyi (Artemiev / Artemov, an old party member), Vasiliy Vanin (Borys, his son), K. Kurakina (Lida, Borys’s wife), Oleksandr Smiranin (Yanchevetskyi / Kryzhevetskyi, an engineer, saboteur), Tetiana Tokarska (Lida’s maid), A. (?) Ortobolevskyi (a man of letters), I. Syzov (head of the factory committee), A. Ostashevskyi (an agent), A. (O?) Bielov (a doorkeeper at the casino)

It is a social drama about the second birth of the intellectual under the influence of the “class” enemy.

An old party member, a scholar Artemiev / Artemov, has his son Borys coming. Artemiev is very happy for his son, as he is a candidate to the Communist party and is to get an interesting job at the nearby ore mining district. The only person who is not happy to see Borys Artemiev is Yanchevetskyi, one of senior offices at Rudtrest.

And there is a reason for that. Yanchevetskyi disclosed the position of the armoured train where Borys served during the civil war to the Whites. Yanchevetskyi acquaints Borys with his protege Lidiia Astakhova. Despite his father’s opposition, Borys marries her.

After the marriage, Borys’s life turns into a series of suspicious events – he commits embezzlement, he is expelled from the party. Eventually, Borys starts realising that Yanchevetskyi uses him through his young wife. Borys finds the strength to disclose Yanchevetskyi to the State Political Directorate (later, KGB). The father makes up his son’s deficiency from a royalty received for his academic work.

This was a début for the Russian actor Vasiliy Vanin.

The film was released on 20 January 1929 in Kyiv, but it was not approved by the Main Repertoire Committee. According to the protocol No 3908 from 08 March 1929, “due to extremely unprofessional production work, the film in misleading in its presentation of the Soviet way of life.”

The film is lost.