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.

Supported by

Made by CASE digital studio
Lost Arrow

+  LOST  +

Guest from Mecca

Guest from Mecca

Road of Fire

1930, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 8 parts / 2,470 m

Director:
 Heorhii Tasin
Scriptwriter:
 Stanislav Waiting (Radzynskyi), Volodymyr Valdo
Cameraman:
 Mykhailo Belsky
Artist:
 Yosyp Shpinel, P. Beitner
Cast:
 Karl Tomskyi (Arbo-Bektr, a rural dean), V. Tsoppi (Lu-Saib, a guest from Mecca), N. (M.?) Beliaiev (general Warren), Medea Mikaberidze (Rixi, a girl bandit), Mykola Kuchynskyi (colonel Blesman), Heyri Emir-zade (Faiz-Mamed), Borys Kallash-Verbytskyi (Fateh, an engineer), A. (?) Zemskyi (Shamir-khan), Hryhorii Yefremov (“a knife-man”), H. Marynchak (Dzhabar, a warden), Borys Shelestov (an officer), Mykola Nademskyi (a blind old man, bigot), Kamil Yarmatov, S. Kurbatov

 

The film tells about the events happening in the early 1930s in an imaginary Asian country Guelistan. The construction of railway lines in the country is hampered by a powerful foreign state. A provocateur is sent to Guelistan disguised as a “holy man from Mecca.” Fulfilling orders of his masters, he incites animosity in Guelistan people against all progress in the country, he prepares an uprising aimed at engaging the foreign country. However, Guelistan people expose the “holy man,” and open their heart to the USSR.

The film is lost.