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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Lord of the Black Rocks

1927, First and Second Film Studio (Odesa, Yalta), 6 parts / 1,850 m

Director: 
Petro Chardynin
Scriptwriter:
 Volodymyr Ovcharenko
Cameraman:
 Borys Zaveliev
Artist: 
Vladimir Egorov
Cast:
 Petro Chardynin (hermit Abish, “the lord of the Black Rocks”), Iona Talanov (father Dikei, an abbot), Oleg Frelikh (Morne, a novitiate), Nikolay Panov (Persifle, a monk), Kolpashnikov (a holy fool), Zoia Barantsevych (Armela, an insane woman pretending to be the Blessed Virgin), H. Zosimov (Hard, her father), Ivan Khudolieiev (Forsino Forban, otaman of sea bandits), Ivan Kapralov (a young pirate), L. Brevi (a young fisherman), Yevhen Hriaznov (a see bandit), B. Uvarova (a Roma woman), Vasiliy Kovrigin (a monk, a pirate), Vladimir Gardin, Karl Tomskyi, M. Arnazi

The film is set somewhere abroad. One of the characters, the novitiate Morne, saves the girl Armela, a fisher, who goes insane and starts thinking that she is the Blessed Virgin of the Winds. Monks from the monastery use this situation for their benefit. Armela’s father finds his daughter and takes her home. Morne, who falls in love with the girl, leaves the monastery and returns to his old profession of an artist. Soon, Armela recovers and marries Morne.

The film was released on 08 January 1924. The film is lost.

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