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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In Snow Banks

In Snow Banks

Snowstorm

1929, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6 parts / 1,730 m

Director:
 Pavlo Dolyna
Scriptwriter:
 Luka Liashenko
Cameraman:
 Oleksandr Lavryk
Artist:
 Serhii Khudiakov
Cast:
 Semen Svashenko (Andrii Burmysh, commander of a partisan detachment), Zoia Kurdiumova (Olenka), V. Komaretskyi (Torchylo), Vasyl Krasenko (a medium peasant), Ivan Hrankin (pan Butovych, a hetman’s commander), Heorhii Astafiev (a sergeant-major), H. Marynchak (Vasyl, a partisan), Mykola Bochkarov (a partisan), Mykola Nademskyi (an old man, forester)

1919. Ukraine. There are hetman’s detachments on one side of the country, and in the thickets, on the other side, more and more partisan detachments are emerging. In the centre of the location of one of such detachments, a forester and his granddaughter Olia live in a small house.

Olia is a very brave and courageous girl. She has weapons with her when she gathers information and fulfils partisans’ tasks. Hetman’s followers track the girl down, find the forester’s house and rob it. Taking advantage of the snowstorm, the commander of the partisan detachment, Burmysh, takes the wounded forester and Olia out of the woods. Hetman’s people stop them on their way; Burmysh and Olia have to escape. Olia manages to warn the partisans.

They circle the hetman’s detachment, destroy it and move forward to join the Red Army units.

The work on the film started on 25 January 1929 and finished on 15 April 1929. The film was released on 26 April 1929 in Kyiv and on 20 February 1930 in Moscow. The film is lost.