Natalka Poltavka

Overview

This 1954 version of Natalka Poltavka was considered lost and is presented here in its entirety by request. The film was made in France by post World War II Ukrainian emigres. It is an ultra low budget movie - effort of Borys Dniprowyj. In 1951, Dniprowyj somehow obtained a fair quantity of color film and decided to do something about it. The result is a screen version of Natalka Poltavka which is an ultra rarity today and unseen since the 1950s. Filming took place outside of Paris, France on land acquired by Ukrainian pensioners. This land resembled the steppes of Ukraine. Natalka Poltavka was filmed entirely as a silent movie in 1953. Sometime later in 1953, sound was added to the movie when Dniprowyj was able to make use of the sound recording equipment in a Paris studio. The final product was amateurish. The sound was added poorly to the film during post-production resulting in a somewhat out-of-sync final product that resembles dubbing of a foreign film.