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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Salt

1925, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 1 part / 419 m

Director:
 Petro Chardynin
Scriptwriter: 
Isaac Babel
Cameraman:
 Pavlo Berozkin
Artist:
 Іvan Suvorov
Cast:
 Ivan Kapralov (Balmashov, a Red Army soldier), Leonid Yureniev (Kolokolkin), Aleksandr Sashyn (Smuhlov, a Cossack), A. Olenich-Aleksieieva (Kseniia), Vasilii Yaroslavtsev (a machinist), Leonid Barbe (a hunchback with a dog), P. Hierov (the first blind man), Oleksandr Malskyi (the second blind man), Anna Horicheva (a fat woman), Marharyta Chardynina-Barska (an old woman), Anton Klymenko (a stoker), Osyp Merlatti, A. (O.?) Symonov, Heorhii Sprantse, V. Piddubnyi, M. Hershunenko, Vladimir Uralsky, A. (O.?) Bielov, P. Matviienko (Petliura’s people)

A Red Army detachment going to the front gives shelter to a woman with an infant in their carriage. Soon, one of the soldiers realises that the infant is weird as it does not cry… Unwrapping the “baby,” the Red Army soldiers find… a package with salt there. Outraged, they shoot the woman.

Isaac Babel’s script was approved by the Higher Repertoire Committee (protocol No 548) on 12 January 1925. The film was included in the third issue of VUFKU’s newsreel Flywheel.

The film is lost.