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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Three Rooms with a Kitchen

A Horrible Person

1928, First (Odesa) and Second (Yalta) Film Studios VUFKU
5 parts / 1,400 m (6 parts, 2,341 m)

Director:
 Mykola Shpykovskyi
Scriptwriter:
 Solomon Lazurin
Cameraman:
 Aleksandr Stanke (Yakiv Avdieiev started the shooting)
Artist:
 Mattea Buiukli
Cast:
 N. Tatarchevskyi (Loboiko, a newspaper editor), Dora Feller-Shpykovska (Tina Oleksandrivna, his wife), Semen Hrabin (his brother, “a horrible person”), B. Honcharov, Anna Horicheva (Tina’s parents), L. Khutorna/ia/ (her aunt with a white cat), M. Svietukhina (Katia), Borys Shlikhting (poet Loshadkin), L. Volovyk (artist Trepachov), (Hryhorii?) Yefremov (a Decadent artist), Volodymyr Lisovskyi (a house manager), Parshyn (a caller-out), Mykola Nademskyi (a night watchman)

The film is based on Vladimir Mayakovsky’s script How Are the Things? about the the struggle with petty bourgeoisie in everyday life.

The Soviet editor Loboiko has his brother, a student of the Rabfak, visiting him. He is not very welcomed. Loboiko’s wife, Tina, a pretty woman, is only interested in flirting and foxtrot, her father is a glutton and do-nothing, her mother is a house “Field Marshall,” her aunt is a spinster with an old cat. Moreover, Loboiko imprudently rejects the mediocre poet Loshadkin’s works who is one of Tina’s admirers. Tina organises a “flirting and dancing” party in honour of Loshadkin. Suddenly, Loboiko and his brother show up. A big scandal begins. Loboiko leaves his wife and settles in the kitchen.

Lazurin’s script was approved by the Higher Repertoire Committee (protocol No 2940) on 06 May 1927. The shooting began on 1 November 1927. After the earthquake in Yalta in September 1927, the film crew was dissolved, and the script was transferred to Odesa Film Studio. The shooting finished in March 1928.

Première: 02 August 1928 (Kyiv); 25 January 1929 (Moscow)

The film is lost.

Libretto