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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Крізь сльози. Постер

Through Tears

Pages of the Past

1928, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6 parts / 2,428 m

Director:
 Hryhorii Hrycher-Cherykover
Scriptwriter:
 Hryhorii Hrycher-Cherykover, I. Skvyrskyi
Cameraman:
Nicolas Farkas, Fridrikh Verigo-Darovsky
Artist:
 Yosyp Shpinel
Cast:
 D. Kaverberh (Shymon Elia Perchyk, a tailor), Anna Horicheva (Beila, his wife), M. Synelnykova (Frida / Bruha, their daughter), A. Kantor (Elia, Frida’s / Bruha’s husband), L. Lanskoi (his father), Zilberman (Elia’s mother), A. Vabnyk (Pinia), M. Zaslavskyi (Melamed, the goat’s owner), Tsuker (his wife), B. Chernov (a rabbi), A. (O.) Sashyn (a baker), O. Merlatti (a locksmith), Matvii Liarov (Dodia, the tavern’s owner), Zilberman (Motele), Teodor Brainin (a barber), A. Symonov (a police officer), Istomin (a district police officer), A. (O.?) Kharytonov (a policeman) 

The film is based on Sholem Aleichem’s short stories The Bewitched Tailor, Motl, Peysi the Cantor’s Son, The Pocket-Knife.

The poor tailor Perchyk who dreams to buy a she-goat lives in a small town. Meanwhile, Perchyk’s daughter Frida falls in love with the unemployed Elia Perchyk is totally against their marriage, as he cannot buy a she-goat if the son-in-law does not have any money. Finally, Perchyk buys a she-goat from a rich tavern owner but he gives him… a goat. Moreover, a police officer dissatisfied with the tailored uniform forges a document, according to which Perchyk and his whole family are expelled from the town as troublemakers.

The film is lost.

The film was released on 02 April 1928 in Kyiv and on 08 January 1929 in Moscow.