The film is based on the comic opera Zaporožech' za Dunajem (Запорожець за Дунаєм, "A Zaporogo beyond the Danube") by the Ukrainian composer Semen Stepanovyč Hulak-Artemovs'kyj (1813-1873), who also wrote the related libretto .
The producer and screenwriter Vasile Avramenko, director of a Ukrainian dance company had in the past also produced Ulmer's Natalka Poltavka.