Avramenko found himself as an impressionable person, and as such, he had begun his filmmaking journey in spontaneous and memorable fashion. Hence, he had produced his first ever Ukrainian film, Natalka Poltavka, based off an operetta by Ivan Kotlyarevsky, written in 1818. The film relied on not just Avramenko’s charm and methods of fundraising, but also on Edgar G. Ulmer, a banished Hollywood director, who worked with Avramenko for the first time. Edgar and his wife Shirley had managed to help him start off decently within the Ukrainian-American community, who had originally known Avramenko through his dancing. The film showed an old-aged story of love, marriage, and the promises that we make to each other. The maiden Natalka is walking toward a mill, reminding herself of the promise she had made to a boy named Petro to love him, no matter how far apart they seemed or who stood in their way. …show more content…
Nevertheless, they eventually find each other and decide to marry. Interestingly, Natalka Poltavka may have started a film career for Avramenko, considering it was thought of as the “first in a series of up to six films to be made by the newly-formed Avramenko Film Productions.” When this film premiered in New York on February 13, 1937, American critics revered it greatly; Variety had claimed that the songs became “the source for many of Tchaikovsky's best compositions.” The music and the dancing seemed to have won the show for this particular film. The New York Times had even heard of a Soviet remake of Natalka Poltavka, but they preferred Avramenko’s version instead, stating that it became “more enjoyable than the imported article. This is due to the fact that it contains more funny incidents and is photographed much