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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Vendetta

An Eye for an Eye

1925, First Film Studio VUFKU (Odesa), 3 parts / 906 m

Director:
 Les Kurbas
Scriptwriter:
 Mykola Borysov, Solomon Lazurin, Heorhii Stabovyi
Cameraman:
 Borys Zaveliev
Artist:
 Vadym Meller
Cast:
 Yosyp Hirniak (priest Sylvestr Izhekheruvymskyi), O. Olenich-Aleksieieva (the priest’s wife), Stepan Shahaida (deacon Hordii Sviatoptitsyn), Oksana Piddlisna (the deacon’s wife), Amvrosii Buchma (a watchman), Babicheva (an old woman), Oleksandr Perehuda (a passerby)

Neighbours, priest Sylvestr Izhekheruvymskyi and deacon Hordii Sviatoptitsyn, have a feud because of a sweet cherry tree which grows on the boundary between their houses and one day it suddenly produces a good harvest.

The script is based on A. Zorych’s newspaper satire The Story of how Father Sylvestr Izhekheruvymskyi and Deacon Sviatoptitsyn Quarrelled (in the opinion of the film critic Valentyna Zabolotna, the film is based on I. Nechui-Levytskyi’s play Kaidash’s Family). This film was a début for Stepan Shahaida and Amvrosii Buchma.

The film was released in July 1925. The film was included in the first (third – according to other sources) issue of VUFKU’s newsreel Flywheel.

The film is lost.