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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Searching for Fate

Searching for Fate

1927, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6 parts / 1,605 m

Director:
 Mark Tereshchenko
Scriptwriter: 
Kostiantyn Polonnyk
Cameraman: 
Oleksandr Ryllo
Artist:
 Heinrich Beisenherz, Vasyl Krychevskyi, Ivan Suvorov
Cast: 
Volodymyr Lisovskyi (pan Tkhorzhevskyi), O. Merlatti (his osavul), Oleksandr Chuverov (an old rural man), Ivan Kapralov (Ostap Mandryka, a young rural guy), Mili Taut-Korso (Solomiia, a house serf), Dmytro Kapka (Ivan, a young rural guy), Oleksandr Malskyi (an old miller), L. Chembarska (an old Roma woman), Mykola Nademskyi (an old Roma man), M. Polishchuk (a young Roma girl), (V.) Borys Zahorskyi (a young Roma man), Istomin (a Turkish officer), Sk(v)oretskyi, K. Rudakov (Turkish guards), Leonid Barbe (a Romanian man with a monkey), Leonid Chembarskyi (Drahoman), I. Korrado (a rich Bulgarian), I. Syzov (an old ferryman), Iryna Insarova (a rural girl)

The film is based on a short novel by M. Kotsiubynskyi At a High Price.

Saving his life from inevitable lord’s punishment, the farmworker Ostap Mandryka escapes to Bulgaria. Injured during the border crossing, he and other escapees manage to get to the place. He faces a lot of hardships and misery. Ostap does not find his happiness abroad and returns home…

The script was approved by the Higher Repertoire Committee on 12 October 1926; it was published as a separate edition; the shooting began on 24 December 1926 and finished on 1 May 1927. The film was released on 19 July 1927 in Kyiv and on 27 January 1928 in Moscow.

The film is lost