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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Laws of the Storm

Nine-tenths of Fate
First (Odesa) and Second (Yalta) Film Studios VUFKU, 7 parts / 2,000 m

Director:
 Oleksandr Soloviov
Scriptwriter:
 Vieniamin Kavierin
Cameraman:
 Marius Holdt (studio), Albert Kuhn (on location)
Artist: 
Volodymyr Miuller
Cast:
 Borys Shlikhting (Tarkhanov, a captain), N. Fedorenko (Kostiantyn Shakhov, a warrant officer), Volodymyr Lisovskyi (Halvetskyi, a scribe of the military court), Nina Li (Halyna Miu(i)ller), I. Kaverberh (Turbin, also Raievskyi, the chief of staff), F. Khokhlov (Kryvenko, a commissar), Borys Shelestov-Zauze (an investigator of Warsaw prison), A. Ostashevskyi (a general in the military school), P. Matvieienko (a warrant officer arresting Shakhov), Mykola Nademskyi (the general on the boulevard), Bielov, Kharytonov, Barsov, Honcharov (members of the City Council), H. Marynchak (head of the revolutionary tribunal), D. (Volodymyr?) Voishvyllo (a Red Army soldier), L. Lanskoi (a civil servant on the train), Parshyn (Tarkhanov’s guard), Solntsev

The film is based on the short novel Nine-tenths of Fate by V. Kavierin.

In October 1917, the warrant officer Shakhov takes the path of the revolution. Shakhov is concerned that in the time of the imperialist war, he, when arrested for the participation in a revolutionary group and interrogated while being half conscious, told the name of his friend and teacher, the revolutionary Raievskyi. This fact is disclosed. The revolutionary tribunal sentences Shakhov to death. In the very last moment, Raievskyi who became a significant party member under the name Turbin, saves Shakhov and tells the court about the circumstances when he unconsciously became a betrayer. The tribunal declares Shakhov not guilty.

The film has survived without the second, sixth and seventh parts.

The film was released on 06 July 1928 in Kyiv and on 18 December 1928 in Moscow.