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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Vasia the Reformer

1926, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 6 parts / 1,603-2,030 m

Director:
 Favst Lopatynskyi, Oleksandr Dovzhenko
Scriptwriter:
 Oleksandr Dovzhenko
Cameraman:
 Joseph Rona, Danylo Demutskyi
Artist:
 Ivan Suvorov
Cast:
 Vasia Liudvynskyi (Vasia, a pioneer), Yura Chernyshov (Yurko, his brother), Yurii Shumskyi (Pylyp Sotka, Vasia’s uncle), Nataliia Chernyshova (Vasia’s mother), M. Smolenskyi (the head of Lushpaisyndykat), Dmytro Kapka (a superintendent), Stepan Shahaida (Mytko Kutsyi, a criminal), A. Symonov (a beerhouse keeper), Volodymyr Uralskyi (a cook), Ksana Zapadna (a lady, the superintendent’s acquaintance), Istomin (a drunkard), Anton Klymenko, Artikula (priests), Rudakov (a district duty officer), Komarova (a typist), Lazar Frenkel (a Lushpaisyndykat employeeу)

Vasia, the son of a factory’s worker, is attracted by the romance of adventures. And he goes to look for them. He saves a drowning drunkard who tries to beat him. Vasia escapes from him in a vehicle parked on the shore. However, the vehicle belongs to a superintendent who, when he does not find it, stages its theft. Meanwhile, Vasia exposes priests in the church. As a result, the church is turned into a cinema, and the priest becomes a cinema technician. And finally, Vasia’s last deed is catching a criminal at home and denouncing him to the militia.

It is a satire of the NEP period. It is the first Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s film.

The film was released on 17 December 1926 in Kyiv. The film is lost.

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Editorial script

Film Treatment