'Lost' Films That Vanished Into the Dark: From Censorship to Oblivion
Films erased from history.
Humanity's cinematic heritage is full of films lost to censorship and political repression. 'Lost' films leave gaps in film history, robbing us of the chance to fully appreciate the cultural heritage of the past.
The DeTalks team gathered a few such films and looked into why they 'disappeared.'
Censorship as a Tool for Erasing Film Art
In totalitarian regimes, censorship was often the reason films that didn't align with official ideology disappeared. In the USSR, for instance, many films were banned or destroyed because of their content.
One such example is a symbolic film-parable by Yurii Illienko, 'A Well for the Thirsty' (1966), about a lonely old man tending a well. The film was banned and struck from film history over 'ideological deviations' and its critical look at Soviet reality. The Communist Party of Ukraine's Central Committee ordered every copy of the film destroyed, though one was saved by the director himself.
Lost Ukrainian Film Works
Many films from Ukrainian cinema shot in the first half of the 20th century were also lost or destroyed. The works of director Hryhorii Krykun, for instance, who worked at the Kyiv Studio of Popular Science Films, haven't fully survived.
His films 'Above the Cheremosh' (1954) and 'The Girl from the Lighthouse' (1956), for instance, remain little known due to limited access to the archives and the possible destruction of the materials.
The first film depicts the collectivization process in a Bukovyna village in 1947-1948, when residents face threats from kulaks and Bandera-affiliated units. The second tells a personal love story about the lighthouse keeper's daughter.
Volodymyr Denysenko's 1968 film 'Conscience' was banned by the Soviet authorities for 'ideological error,' since the film depicted World War II events without emphasizing the Party and Komsomol's role. This didn't align with official ideology.
The film's only surviving copy was considered lost until 1989, when it unexpectedly resurfaced at the Dovzhenko Film Studio.
'Lost' Films: Restoration Efforts
Today, work continues to find and restore lost films. Archivists, film scholars, and enthusiasts are joining forces to restore this cinematic heritage.
The project 'Kinotron,' for instance, works on finding and digitizing film reels held in the archive of the National Cinema Fund of Ukraine. In 2021, the team began work on a catalog of more than 11,000 units of film reel — and later began digitizing the archive.
These phantom films are a reminder of how fragile cultural heritage is, and how important it is to preserve it. They call on us to recognize the value of creative freedom and the need to resist censorship, which can lead to significant losses for art.