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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Earth Is Calling

Earth Is Calling

Cry in the Steppe / Rabin's Daughter

1928, First and Second Film Studio (Odesa / Yalta), 6 parts / 1,882 m

Director:
 Volodymyr Balleziuk
Scriptwriter:
 Moisei Zats, Borys Sharanskyi
Cameraman:
 Volodymyr Lemke
Artist:
 Natan Altman, Mattea Buiukli
Cast:
 Borys Platonov (rabbi of the town of Laden), Yeva Bark (Gitelie, his daughter), A. Kantor (Moishelie, his son), M. Smolenskyi (Pinia Shpak, a speculator), Plisetska (Dvoira, his wife), Mo(e)rienzon (Froim Shpak, their son), Larskyi (Zeidel, Froim’s friend), Volodymyr Dalskyi (a young Roma guy), Leonid Barbe (Shadkhen Rebbe Meyer, a matchmaker), I. Zhyvotovskyi (a hairdresser), O. Naz(d)arov (Nekhemia, a shoemaker), V. Kalpashnikov (a tailor), V. Speshynskyi (Yoselie, a baggage-man), Shcherbakova (rabbi’s maid), M. Zaslavskyi (Gershelie, a blacksmith), Volodymyr Khenkin (minor cast)

The Jewish town of Laden. Gitelie, rabbi’s daughter, loves the blacksmith Gertel, but she is proposed as a wife to Froim, the son of the rich man Pinia Shpak.

Gertel establishes a collective farm on Shpak’s lands confiscated by the revolution. Shpak the senior provokes his son and the local bandit Zeidel to set the buildings of the collective farm on fire.

The fire spreading during Froim’s and Gitelie’s wedding is extinguished. Gitelie runs away from Froim to her beloved Gertel.

The film is lost.

Zats’s script was approved by the Higher Repertoire Committee (protocol No 3009) on 23 May 1927. The work on the film started on 15 July 1927 (Yalta) and finished on 19 January 1927 (Odesa).