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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Mitroshka, the Soldier of the Revolution

Mitroshka, the Soldier of the Revolution

1928, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6 parts / 1,900 m

Director:
 Mark Tereshchenko
Scriptwriter:
 Vasyl Kamenskyi
Cameraman:
 Joseph Rona
Artist:
 Ivan Suvorov
Cast:
 Arsenii Kuts (Mitroshka), Zoia Kurdiumova (Paraska), O. Appak (Mitroshka’s mother), Anton Klymenko (Pavlo), Ivan Malikov-Elvorti (Alosha Bozhemoi, a fugitive), H. Marynchak (commander of the armoured train), Oleksandr Chuverov (a military commissar), Oleksandr Smiranin (head of the White convoy), Kostiantyn Koshevskyi (post adjutant), F. Khokhlov (head of the Red Army unit), Anna Horicheva (a tradeswoman / a second-hand dealer)

The years of the Civil War. Mitroshka is a young uneducated rural guy. People make fun of him because of his shyness and awkwardness. More than that, his beloved girlfriend Paraska wants a gramophone. Mitroshka takes a sack of potatoes, goes to the town hoping to trade potatoes for a gramophone. The guy has his documents stolen on the cattle train. The Red Army patrol sends the blunderer without a passport to sweep railway lines. Advised by his acquaintance, the Red Army soldier Stepan, Mitroshka voluntarily enlists in the Red Army to get rid of the punishment.

As a person who is not aware of the revolution, Mitroshka is sent to a neighbour village to bring some hens. There are White Guards there. The battle begins. Mitroshka gets the machine gun of the Whites and thus redeems himself in the eyes of the Red Army soldiers. Later, Mitroshka really becomes a fit, disciplined soldier. He even does a heroic deed holding off the White army, and then he suddenly finds… a new gramophone in their wagon train. With the commander’s approval, Mitroshka takes the gramophone to his beloved Paraska. Then he returns to his detachment. To struggle on…

The work on the film started on 19 February 1928 and finished on 9 June 1928.

The film is lost.