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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Mariia Diusimetier

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Mariia Diusimetier

Mariia Diusimetier was a Ukrainian Soviet silent film actress.

In 1927-1928, Maria Dusimetier starred in five films at VUFKU’s Odesa Film Studio. This made her one of the first stars of the Ukrainian film industry.
Filming took place almost simultaneously, and the films came out one after another. In the film The Eyes That Saw (1928, based on Sholom Aleichem’s short story Motele-idealist) Diusimetier had to play the wife of an intendant Kolotov (Sergei Diaharin).

Maria Diusimetier also played Katia (the daughter of the main character) in a film that became a classic of the Ukrainian silent cinema Night Coachaman (1927). The role of Hordii, a night coachman, was played by one of the best Ukrainian actors of that time, Amvrosii Buchma. At the same time, Buchma and Diusimetier starred in Nikolay Okhlopkov’s film Sold Appetite (1928, based on Paul Lafargue’s pamphlet), only this time the actors had to play lovers.

Diusimetier and Buchma worked together on more than one filming locations. Particularly, in the film On the Eve (1928), where Mariia played a sex worker.
When Amvrosii Buchma decided to try himself as a director, he gave the leading female role to Mariia Diusimetier. In the film Behind the Wall (1928), Buchma played not only the role of director and scriptwriter, but also the performer of the leading cast the imprisoned revolutionery Yanush Topchynskyi, with whom Diusimetier’s heroine Klara falls in love.

As of 1929, Mariia Diusimetier was a famous actress, her portraits were depicted on postcards with thousands of copies.

In 1929 Yevgeniy Chernyak wrote about Mariia Diusumetier on the pages of the magazine Krytyka (1928-1932). In the article ‘Ways of Ukrainian Soviet Cinematography’ author stated that Mariia Diusimetier and Anna Sten “switched to the Russian cinema”. It is known that Anna Sten emigrated to Germany in the early 30’s, but what happened with Mariia Diucimetier remains unknown and her traces are lost. The same fate befell several other successful actresses of VUFKU: Polina Sklyar-Otava, Oksana Pidlisna, and Mili Taut-Corso.

Mariia Diusimetier
Mariia Diusimetier
Mariia Diusimetier
Mariia Diusimetier
Mariia Diusimetier