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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Mill in the Undergrowth

Mill in the Undergrowth

Smoke Over the Cliff

1928, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa) State Cinema Technical College 6 parts / 1,311 m

Director:
 Vadym Yunakovskyi
Scriptwriter:
 Vadym Yunakovskyi
Cameraman:
 Yurii Tamarskyi
Artist:
 Ivan Suvorov
Cast:
 Ivan Siedov (a forester), Hanna Zarzhytska (Nadiika, his daughter), Serhii Koreniak (Serhii, his son), Oleksii Masliukov (Shypov, a young mechanic), V. Indlin (Khrych, a fugitive), Olha Ulytska (a young rural girl), Mykola Topchii (a coachman)

The NEP period. A former forester plans to appropriate an old mill by a small river on the fringe of the forest. However, according to the resolution of district authorities, this mill was rented out to a cooperative of disabled people. To tune up the mill engine, the young mechanic, a Komsomol member, Shypov comes from the city. He and the forester’s children, Nadiika and Serhii, become friends. The forester steals spare parts for the engine and hides them in the forest. Serhii finds them and returns to Shypov. Seeing that Serhii gives Shypov the box with the spare parts, the angry father catches his rifle and chases Nadiika and Serhii. But his negligence kills him. Nadiika and Serhii become assistants of the mechanic Shypov at the cooperative mill.

It is an experimental work of students of Odesa State Cinema Technical College VUFKU.

The film has survived without the first and second parts.

The film was released on 26 October 1928 in Kyiv.