Мастер и Маргарита

Агония создателей фильма

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Introduction

«Scripts written, locations scouted, money squandered: Is the ghost of Joseph Stalin working overtime to prevent the 1930s Russian novel from being brought to the big screen?» That is the opening line of the American journalist Mia Taylor for her article published in Tin House, Issues no. 06, volume 2, no. 2, in 2001. It was about Hollywood's attempts to make screen adaptations of The Master and Margarita. None of these attempts yielded any results so far.

But many Russian directors have also often encountered difficulties in adapting The Master and Margarita - they failed more often than they succeeded. You will find their stories in this chapter of the book. A name that you will not find here is the name of director Rolan Anatolyevich Bykov (1929-1998). According to many authors, he once had plans to make a film of The Master and Margarita. But in his diaries, which were published under the title Я побит - начну сначала! [Ya pobit - nachnu snachala!] or I am beaten - I will start again! from 2010, I did not find any concrete indications for this. He is therefore not included in this overview. Director Vladimir Yakovlevich Vengerov (1920-1997) was also mentioned a few times, but I couldn't find any confirmation on him either.

Student projects at the VGIK

The very first film adaptation of a scene from The Master and Margarita was made in 1968, just over a year after the novel - albeit heavily censored - was published in the magazine Moskva.

During her training at the at the Всероссийский государственный институт кинематографии имени Герасимова (ВГИК) [Vserosysky gosudartsvenny institut kinematografii SA Gerasimova (VGIK)] or the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography (VGIK), student Svetlana Sergeevna Druzhinina (°1935) was allowed to make a 15-minute film based on one of the plots of the novel. It was the scene in which Fokich Sokov, the bartender of the Variety Theatre, goes to Woland to complain that the chervontsi he had received the night before had turned into ordinary shreds of paper. The role of bartender Sokov was played by Nikolay Ivanovich Parfenov (1912-1999) and the role of Woland by Emmanuel Savelyevich Geller (1898-1990). The Armenian film director Artavazd (Artur) Pelechian (°1938) played the role of Azazello.

Druzhinina remembered the confusing atmosphere on the set, she also remembered that the role of the naked Hella was played by three different actresses. The film was shown only once, and the two copies that existed - one from the VGIK and one from Druzhinina - were both lost.

In the same VGIK, student Vitaly Mikhailovich Fetisov (°1944) was inspired by The Master and Margarita for his graduation project Никогда не отвлекайтесь на работе [Nikogda ne otplekaytes na rabote] or Never be distracted at work in 1976. It was a 20-minute film based on chapter 7 of the novel, in which Woland visits Styopa Likhodeev to take his living space.

Oleg Pavlovich Tabakov (1935-2018) played both the roles of Likhodeev and Azazello, Gleb Alexandrovich Strizhenov (1923-1985) played Koroviev, Viktor Ivanovich Yushin (1949-2007) was Behemoth, and the unknown actor Irakly Kiknadze played Woland. A copy of this film has survived. You can view it in full on our website.

Click here to view the film in its entirety

Much later, in 1999, another VGIK student, Varvara Viktorovna Faer (°1965), would be inspired by The Master and Margarita for her thesis. She graduated with the short film Мастерзапятая Маргарита [Master zapyataya Margarita] or Master comma Margarita, a contemporary version of the scene with the yellow flowers, in which the master and Margarita meet. It was only six years later, in 2005, that she would publicly show this film at Die 24 Stunden von Nürnberg, an annual short film festival in Germany. A year later it was also screened at festivals in Riverside (USA), Irpin (Ukraine) and at the Hell on Reels festival in New York (USA).

You can view this short film in its entirety here

In addition, dozens of students in various schools worldwide have completed short animation film projects that were inspired by The Master and Margarita. We show them all together on the «Master and Margarita» website under the heading Animation films.

Click here to read all about the animation films

The Master and Margarita on screen

1967
Igor Vasilievich Talankin

Shortly after The Master and Margarita was first published in the magazine Moskva, the film company Mosfilm had bought the film rights from Bulgakov's widow Yelena Sergeevna. Director Igor Vasilievich Talankin (1927-2010) was appointed to make the film.

In his book Кот ушел, а улыбка осталась [Kot ushel, a ulybka ostalas] or The cat is gone, but the smile remains from 2015, another Russian director, Georgi Nikolaevich Daneliya (1930-2019), describes how he had tried to convince Talankin to work together with him.

«I called Talankin and suggested to him:
- Igor, let's film together again. You do the biblical part and the master's story, and I do everything about Woland and his retinue.
- Gia, I think you understand that we can no longer work together.
- I understand that. But it's a pity.
A month later, the Talankin chapter was closed. Many wanted to make this film, but no one got the permission».

1970
Seppo Nyyrö Wallin - Pilatus

Seppo Nyyrö Wallin (1928-2003) was a TV director and actor from Tampere (Finland). In 1970 he was asked to direct an episode of the TV series Teatterituokio (Theatre Sessions). This series was broadcast on the Finnish television from 1962 to 1982, and had 102 episodes. One TV film per month was broadcast. On March 28, 1970, Walin's film Pilate, based on the biblical chapters of The Master and Margarita was shown. This makes it the first professional film adaptation of The Master and Margarita known to us.

For this film, Ulla-Liisa Heino (°1934) translated Bulgakov's text from Russian, and Seppo Wallin provided the screenplay himself, together with the Finnish author Juha Vakkuri (1946-2019).

1972
Andrzej Wajda - Pilate and Others

In 1972, the Polish director Andrzej Wajda (1926-2016) directed the film Pilatus und Andere. Just as Seppo Wallin two years earlier, he told only the biblical story of the novel, but in a contemporary setting. The film was broadcast by the German television channel ZDF on March 29, 1972. The film is still known by two other titles: Pilat i inni and Ein Film für Karfreitag. It was screened again at the Berlin Film Festival on February 15, 2006, when director Wajda was awarded an Honorary Golden Bear.

1972
Aleksandar Petrović - Il maestro e Margherita

In 1972, director Aleksandar Petrović (1929-1994) was the first director to attempt to film the full story of The Master and Margarita, but the question is whether that was a good idea. After all, anyone who has read the novel runs the risk of being disappointed after having watched this film.

Petrović tells a rather flat story about a well-known Soviet writer and dramaturg whose play about Pontius Pilate is removed from scene during the rehearsals, but who is then supported by the devil Wodan and his girlfriend Margarita in his resistance against the censors. Thanks to that help, the play was put on the theatre bill again, preceded by a black magic show by one professor Woland. Petrović jumbles up the characters and events of the novel as if he had just browsed through the book before filming.

In his film there is no trace of Afranius, Ratslayer, Kaifa, Matthew Levi or Yehuda of Karioth, and for the rest: no Satan’s ball, no apartment number 50, no flight of Margarita, no biblical intrigue, no scene on Sparrow Hills, and I could go on this way for a while.

In 1972, Aleksandar Petrović was a Yugoslavian, and he originally made this film in Serbian. The main difference with the more famous Italian version is not only the language, but also the fact that in the Serbian version you don't hear the soundtrack composed by Ennio Morricone (1928-2020).

In the Serbian version, there are many Russian songs, which can also be heard in the Italian version, but only sporadically and fragmentarily, since they are often pushed aside by Morricone’s soundtrack. In the Serbian version, they they come out better.

Out of courtesy, I will remain rather silent about the acting performances of Alain Cuny (1908-1994) as Woland, Mimsy Farmer (°1945) as Margarita and Ugo Tognazzi (1922-1990) as the master.

1975
Sergey Alimov

In 1975, artist and animation film maker Sergey Aleksandrovich Alimov (1938-2019) conceived a black-and-white cartoon based on The Master and Margarita.

However, he received no support at all from the aforementioned Goskino, and therefore he could not find the necessary funds to realise his project. In 2017, he completed a cycle of twelve black and white graphic sheets that he had prepared for his film.

Click here to watch Sergey Alimov's drawings

1979
Andrey Arsenyevich Tarkovsky

Director Andrey Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (1932-1986) had submitted a so-called creative plan to the Mosfilm studio in December 1979, which included a film adaptation of The Master and Margarita. At least that's what he described in his diary Мартиролог [Martirolog] or Martyrdom, which was published in 2008 by the International Tarkovsky Institute in Florence, Italy.

In the same diary Tarkovsky described his doubts about the project several times. Despite the plan submission, he never got permission to film the novel.

1985
Eldar Aleksadrovich Ryazanov

Director Eldar Aleksandrovich Ryazanov (1927-2015) also wanted to film The Master and Margarita. In February 1985 he wrote in his diary Грустное лицо комедии [Grustnoye litso komedii] or The Sad Face of Comedy that he had visited Mikhail Vasilyevich Zimyanin (1914-1995), the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party for this purpose. In this function, Zimyanin was responsible for culture, science and mass media. Zimyanin, however, did not give a clear answer, saying «that there should be a deliberation».

In March of the same year, Ryazanov met the head of the party's culture department Vasily Filimonovich Shauro (1912-2007). He was much more direct and clear than Zimyanin: «We are not going to film The Master and Margarita ». He said that without giving a reason, and without telling who had made the decision.

In the end, Ryazanov gave up the idea of filming the novel, tired of arguing with an unprecedented bureaucracy.

1986
Vladimir Vasilyev and Boris Yermolaev - Fuete

The film Fuete was made by the Russian director Boris Vladimirovich Yermolaev (°1938) and choreographer Vladimir Viktorovich Vasilyev (°1940). It does not tell the story of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel, but everything revolves around a ballet performance of The Master and Margarita, based on the novel.

In a big theatre in Leningrad, everything is being prepared for the ballet The Master and Margarita. All the roles are assigned, the talented dancer Yelena Knyazeva will dance the part of Margarita. But the choreographer suddenly changes his mind and offers the role to a young debutante. Knyazeva reluctantly becomes a mentor to the young dancer and works with her to create a good image of Margarita.The relationship between teacher and student is not so easy, they are both talented people who find it difficult to find common language and between whom a constant rivalry can be observed. But the premiere of The Master and Margarita will have place.

The story of the film is intertwined with scenes of performances which never took place, and thoughts about the master, Pilate, Margarita, biblical motifs, tenderness and despair.

In the film we recognise the well-known Russian actor Valentin Yosifovich Gaft (1935-2020) in the role of a poet. Gaft has special connections with The Master and Margarita, as he would later play the role of Woland in the film by Yuri Kara in 1994, and Kaifa in the television series by Vladimir Bortko in 2005.

The role of dancer Yelena Knyazeva is played by the famous ballerina Yekaterina Sergeevna Maksimova (1939-2009). For many years, from 1958 to 1980, she was a star dancer of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, where she often danced with her husband Vladimir Vasilyev, the choreographer and co-director of this film, who was also the general and artistic director of the Bolshoi Theatre from 1995 to 2000.

1986
Vladimir Naumovich Naumov

Vladimir Naumovich Naumov (°1927), who had already filmed Bulgakov’s play Бег [Beg] or The Flight with Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Alov (1923-1983) in 1970, wanted to make use of the decreasing censorship in Soviet cinema in 1986 to apply for the screen adaptation of The Master and Margarita. After having seen The Flight, Yelena Sergeevna had said that she wanted Naumov and Alov to continue filming Bulgakov's works. On that occasion she had also given Naumov the complete, uncensored edition of The Master and Margarita.

But Naumov dropped out when he heard that Elem Hermanovich Klimov (1933-2003), the first secretary of the Союз кинематографистов СССР [Soyuz kinematografistov SSSR] or the Union of Cinematographers of the Soviet Union had already submitted the same application and already had an agreement with the American production house Columbia Pictures.

1986-1987
Gennady Ivanovich Poloka

Director Gennady Ivanovich Poloka (1930-2014) read The Master and Margarita already in 1963, before the novel was even published. Poloka was friends with Sergey Aleksandrovich Yermolinsky (1900-1984), the prototype of Aloysi Mogarich in the novel, and Yermolinsky had introduced him to Yelena Sergeevna.

However, after a successful career start, which brought him to the position of director of the film studio Mosfilm, Poloka faced increasing difficulties in finishing his films because they were considered «politically and artistically strange». In 1987, at the dawn of perestroika, Poloka became chairman of the Bureau of Directors of the Union of Cinematographers of the USSR, and he could begin to hope for the filming of The Master and Margarita. But, just as Vladimir Naumov, he encountered Elem Hermanovich Klimov (1933-2003).

1987
Elem Hermanovich Klimov

In 1987, Elem Hermanovich Klimov (1933-2003) came into the picture. In his ambition to make a screen adaptation of The Master and Margarita he was backed by Filip Yermash Timofeevich (1923-2002), who had been the president of the Государственный комитет по кинематографии СССР (Госкино) [Gosudastvenny komitet kinematografii po SSSR (Goskino)] or the State Committee for Cinematography of the Soviet Union (Goskino) from 1972 to 1986.

Klimov also had contacts abroad. He was friends with British producer David Putnam (°1941), who was the chairman and CEO of the American film company Columbia Pictures in 1987.

Klimov also knew Claudia Cardinale (°1938) and her husband, producer Franco Cristaldi (1924-1992). He had met them in 1973 on the set of the Soviet-Italian film Красная палатка [Krasnaya palatka] or The Red Tent. Cristaldi suggested that the Moscow story of The Master and Margarita would be filmed by Klimov, and the Biblical story by the Italian director Federico Fellini (1920-1993). Obviously, Claudia Cardinale should play the role of Margarita.

In 1988, Elem Klimov resigned as the chairman of the Goskino to take a sabbatical and to focus entirely on the making of The Master and Margarita.

Later he recalled: «When my brother Herman Hermanovich Klimov (°1941) and I were writing the screenplay, we were careful to work with great respect for the author, which was not so easy. And of course we were concerned: will people appreciate our work?» But that was not the only problem. For example, there were no technologies that could develop a credible talking cat. «A lot of money was needed for that. And I have not found it».

The project was included in the Goskino planning, although Fellini's participation was dropped. But the time of perestroika had arrived, and Klimov sacrificed his plans because he said he was too much involved in the struggle for democracy at the head of the Union of Cinematographers of the Soviet Union. After this struggle, it was too late to mak the film, not the least for financial reasons: Klimov had asked for a budget of nearly $ 100 million. His friend David Putnam of Columbia Pictures couldn't help. «We do not have the technology necessary to film what's in the script», he said. Moreover, the Klimov brothers were not attracted to the idea of having «at least two American superstars» to be part of the film, as requested by the Americans.

For a moment Elem Klimov had the idea to imply his friend Miloš Forman (1932-2018) in the project, but in the end he gave up his plans. After all, a new shark had arrived in the pond in the person of Yuri Viktorovich Kara (°1954).

1987
Georgy Nikolaevich Daneliya

In 1966, the Georgian director Georgy Nikolaevich Daneliya (1930-2019) was on his way back from Baku, Azerbaijan. He was accompanied by filmmaker Vadim Ivanovich Yusov (1929-2013), who, at a stopover in the Krylatskoye station, bought a roast chicken. In the absence of newspapers, he also bought a magazine from the newsstand, part of which he used to pack the leftovers. Meanwhile, Georgy Danieliya read what was left of the magazine. It turned out to be a copy of the December issue of the monthly magazine Moskva, with the first publication of The Master and Margarita.

As you could read above, Deneliya described in his book The cat is gone, but the smile remains how he had already suggested to Igor Talankin to work together. In the same book, he also describes how Elim Klimov called him to offer him the filming of The Master and Margarita.

«I have been friends with Elem Klimov since childhood. But we had a fundamental disagreement. Elem believed that Stalin was a villain who twisted Lenin's teachings. And I believed that Stalin was a faithful disciple of Lenin and did exactly what the latter had failed to do. And which of them is the greatest villain, tthat is not for me to judge. Elem gave me 'The Master and Margarita', I called him to thank him, and to tell him I didn't know how to make that film».

Especially the character of Behemoth was a reason for concern for Daneliya. «But that cat! How do you make a cat? An actor in cat skin? That would be noticed. Puppet animation? Next to the actors, they will seem to be dead. Just a man, a naughty young man? No, they will not forgive us, everyone is waiting for a charming handsome ugly cat. I called Elem and refused».

But, after he finished the animated film Ku! Kin-dza-dza, Deneliya changed his mind. He was now certain that an excellent animation could be created based on The Master and Margarita. But he had no strength left for such an effort.

Then he learned that director Yuri Kara had started to film The Master and Margarita at the Gorky Studio. Despite the fact that Klimov and Daneliya had dropped their plans, they still made one phone call to the Goskino together.

- We were supposed to make this movie. Why was it given to someone else?
- Nobody asked. He found sponsors, they gave him money, so he could start. That's how capitalism works.
- Well, what to do? What should we do?
- What can we do? Blow up the Gorky Studio? I am convinced that there will be two completely different films.
- But this is nonsense, I submitted the first application!
- No, Elem, not the first. Igor Talankin was the first to apply, then Vengerov, then Naumov wanted to shoot the film. Everyone was refused, but you were allowed. You were the first secretary of the Union.

But even the first secretary of the Union and his childhood friend failed to make their dream come true.

1989
Roman Polanski

In November 1989, the Polish-French film director Roman Polanski (°1933) was approached by the film producer Warner Bros with the request to make a film version of The Master and Margarita. Polanski was very fond of the idea: «In Poland it is a cult book. We were much more sensitive to all that Soviet absurdity and surrealism. In the late eighties I was looking for material and I thought of 'The Master and Margarita'. The desire to make a film comes from what you would like to see, and at that time it was what I wanted to see on screen».

In all modesty, he described his own screenplay as «the best thing ever written». Polanski had developed it in collaboration with John Brownjohn (1929-2020). In their screenplay, the master and Margarita were no longer adulterous lovers, but neighbours, with Margarita being a young music teacher.

Shortly afterwards, however, the idea was dropped again, on the one hand because of the cost, and on the other hand because Warner Bros thought that a satire on the Soviet Union would no longer be relevant due to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

1989 (?)
Ray Manzarek

Around that time, Ray Manzarek (1939-2013), member of the legendary group The Doors, but trainied as a filmmaker had also plans to make a film based on The Master and Margarita.

Manzarek thought of Mick Jagger (°1943), lead singer of The Rolling Stones, to play the part of Woland. Jerry Hall (°1956), Jagger's life partner for many years, told him: «It's his favourite book! That role is for him! He is Professor Woland». For the role of Margarita, Manzarek had approached the actress Julie Delpy (°1969).

The screenplay was written by Rick Valentine, and Manzarek thought of Peter Medak (°1937) as a director. But Michael Lang (1944-2022), one of the organisers of the legendary rock festival in Woodstock in 1969, who had bought the rights to the film, did not like the screenplay. Medak didn't like it either and dropped out.

1989
Aleksandr Dzekun - Master i Margarita

In 1974, Aleksandr Ivanovich Dzekun (°1945) graduated at the Leningrad Institute of Theatre, Music and Film and started working for the Karl Marx Academic Drama Theatre in Saratov, where he became director in 1982. From 1991 to 1997 he was also Artistic Director of the theatre. Dzekun has realized more than 50 plays, including many works by Mikhail Bulgakov such as Zoyka's Apartment, The Purple Island and The White Guard. In 1986 he directed The Master and Margarita, a play for which the spectators had to reserve two consecutive evenings because it was too long for one performance.

In 1989 Dzekun filmed his theatre adaptation of The Master and Margarita for television. As the subtitle - Chapters from the novel - already suggests, the film does not encompass the entire novel. 21 chapters of it were included in a two-part film totaling 190 minutes.

And those are 190 long minutes, to be honest. Because this film is not a «real» film. It’s just the recording of a long theatre play. The use of close-ups and the addition of a soundtrack are inot sufficient as tools to make a real film version of this theatrical performance. Moreover, the close-ups reveal details that you don't notice in the theater. Such as the fact that actress Valentina Aleksandra Fedotova (°1947) looked already a bit too old in 1989 top play a credible Margarita.

1990
Maciej Wojtyszko - Mistrz i Małgorzata

This four-episode television series made for the Polish television by director Maciej Wojtyszko (°1946) is the first film adaptation of the novel that aimed to faithfully reflect the book's original storyline, although it did not quite succeed in doing so.

The series closely follows the story of Bulgakov, but does not always breathe the same atmosphere. One of the reasons is that it is never really dark in this series. According to Wojtyszko, there was very simple explanation: there was insufficient budget to record scenes in the dark. Still, some scenes are among the best I've ever seen in adaptations of The Master and Margarita. One of them being the grotesque meeting of the master with Lapshennikova, the secretary of the editorial board who has to decide on the possible publication of his novel about Pilate, or the scene of the mass hypnosis of the staff of the Commission on Spectacles and Entertainment of the Lighter Type in Vagankovsky Lane and the interrogation of Yeshua Ha-Nozri by Pilate.

The main actors in the series are Anna Dymna (°1951) as Margarita, Wladyslaw Kowalski (1936-2017) as the master, Gustaw Holoubek (1923-2008) as Woland and Zbigniew Zapasiewicz (1934-2009) as Pilate.

1990
Andras Szirtes - Forradalom Utan

In circles of cinephiles, the Hungarian Andras Szirtes (°1951) is regarded as one of the most innovative and challenging filmmakers in Europe. From 1987 to 1989 he worked on the experimental film Forradalom Után or After the Revolution. The film was released in 1990, in the wake of the disastrous political changes of his native Hungary. At the time of making this film, Szirtes was living in New York.

Szirtes himself says that in this film his personal story is mixed with the story from The Master and Margarita. However, it does require some effort from the viewer to notice it. I have seen a story of a writer who wants to write a great novel but who, in order to avoid censorship, writes his novel from the point of view of his cat, and this story is richly filled with allusions to The Master and Margarita. I saw a visual composition, held together by fragments from old Soviet documentaries and pieces of text from the novel, but no cinematographic adaptation of it.

1991
Oldřich Daněk - Pilát Pontský, onoho dne

Oldřich Daněk (1927-2000) was a Czech writer and filmmaker, born in Ostrava in what was then Czechoslovakia. He studied at the theatre faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU). In addition to feature films, he also made television series, and he wrote a number of radio plays.

In 1991 Oldřich Daněk made the TV movie Pilát Pontský, onoho dne, which could be translated as A Day in the Life of Pontius Pilate. The film was commissioned by Czech television and tells only thebiblical story of The Master and Margarita. Luděk Munzar (1933-2019) plays Pontius Pilate, and Ondřej Vetchý (°1962) plays Yeshua Ha-Nozri.

1992
Paul Bryers - Incident in Judea

Paul Bryers (°1945) is a British writer and filmmaker. He has written and directed many fact-based dramas for television, radio and theatre, and adapted and directed films based on the works of playwrights such as Arthur Miller and Michael Bulgakov.

Paul Bryers made the TV movie Incident In Judea, which tells only the biblical story of The Master and Margarita. The film was broadcast by Britain's Channel 4 on March 31, 1991. It was the first real drama Paul Bryers ever directed and he told me it remains one of his best directorial experiences.

Bryers had a selection of the best actors working for television in the United Kingdom at the time. The film is largely supported by the acting performances of John Woodvine (°1929) as Pontius Pilate, but also Mark Rylance (°1960) as Yeshua Ha-Notsri, Jim Carter (°1948) as Aphranius, Lee Montague (°1927) as Joseph Kaifa, Jason Carter (°1960) as Yehuda of Kiriath, Frank Baker as Matthew Levi and Rosalind Bennett (°1966) as Niza.

1994
Yuri Viktorovich Kara - Master i Margarita

In 1994 director Yuri Viktorovich Kara (°1954) delivered his screen adaptation of The Master and Margarita. How he managed to get it organised is still not clear. Kara said he could start filming because Elem Klimov had given up on his plans, while Klimov claimed he had shelved his plans because Kara had started filming.

Partly because of this lack of clarity, there was initially some resistance among actors to play in this film. Oleg Ivanovich Yankovsky (°1944), who was offered the role of the master, declined the offer. Later on, Yuri Kara offered the role of Woland to Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Yevstigneev (1926-1992). He agreed, but he asked for some delay to get started: he had to go to England for surgery first. But he never returned to Russia alive - he died on the operating table. After having recovered from the shock of the actor's sudden death, Kara invited Valentin Gaft to play Woland.

After some deliberation, Aleksander Gavrilovich Abdulov (1953-2008) did not accept the role of Koroviev - later Abdulov would play this role, with brilliance, in the TV series directed by Vladimir Bortko. Nevertheless, Kara was able to convince a pleiade of stars: Anastasia Aleksandrovna Vertinskaya (°1944) as Margarita, Valentin Iosifovich Gaft (1935-2020) as Woland, Aleksandr Georgievich Filippenko (°1944) as Koroviev, Mikhail Aleksandrovich Ulyanov (1927-2007) as Pontius Pilate, Nikolay Petrovich Burlyayev (°1946) as Yeshua and Leo Konstantinovich Durov (1931-2015) as Levi Matteus. The film score was written by Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (1934-1998).

Kara's film was the most expensive post-Soviet production at the time. The high inflation and the instability of the ruble caused the costs for the production company TAMP to rise to 15 million dollars. The filming itself was constantly disturbed by problems with the producers, as well as with the actors. For example, the female extras who had to dance at Woland's ball refused to be filmed naked. That wasn't because they were too squeamish, but because it was too cold in the Marble Palace of Saint Petersburg, where the filming was done.

However, when the film was finished, producers Arsen Adamyan, Irena Mineeva, Aleksander Mishin and Vladimir Skory decided not to release it. TAMP chairman Vladimir Skory said the director's cut of Yuri Kara was unacceptable, as it lasted 3 hours and 20 minutes, and he demanded that it be shortened to a maximum of two hours. The soundtrack by Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (1934-1998) was released on CD in 2005.

While the director and producers were fighting their battle over the duration of the film, a new character suddenly appeared on the scene. He would be the cause of the fact that it would take until 2011 before the film could be shown to the public. That character was Sergey Sergeevich Shilovsky (°1952), a grandson from Yelena Sergeevna's second marriage, who had managed to acquire the copyrights for Mikhail Bulgakov's works. You can read more information about this character by clicking the following link.

Click here to read more about Sergey Shilovsky

The film was only screened in 2006 as part of the 28th Moscow Film Festival. On January 17, 2011, he finally got a press vision in Saint Petersburg, and from April 7, 2011 on, the general public could finally see him in Russian cinemas.

1996
Sergey Glebovich Desnitsky - Master i Margarita

Sergey Glebovich Desnitsky (°1941) is a Russian actor and director. In 1962 he graduated from the Theatre School of the famous Moscow Art Theater MKhAT, to which he was also associated as an actor from 1965 to 1990.

In 1990, together with his then wife, actress Yelena Yurievna Kondratova (°1952), he had set up his own company in which he filmed three works from Russian literature. One of those works was The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. His film version was an adaptation of the play The Extraordinary Adventures of the Master Mikhail Afanasievich and his Margarita, Yelena Sergeevna, which was staged at the theatre У Никитских ворот [U Nikitskich vorot] or At Nikitsky Gate, to which he was associated.

Sergey Desnitsky himself played the role of the master, his wife Yelena Kondratova played the role of Margarita.

2005
Ibolya Fekete - A Mester és Margarita

Ibolya Fekete (°1951) is a Hungarian filmmaker. In 1990 she became a dramaturg for the Hunnia Film Studios. Her career as a director started when she made the documentary From Berlin to Berlin in 1989-1990.

Her films rarely became major commercial successes, but they often win prizes at festivals. In 2005 Fekete made a 26 minute short film entitled A Mester és Margarita. This film, with some well-known Russian and Hungarian actors, was broadcast by MTV Premier on October 5, 2005. The report about the making of the film lasted longer than the film itself.

Regina Konstantinovna Myannik (°1971) played the Margarita part, Grigory Alekseevich Lifanov (°1966) played the master, Sergey Aleksandrovich Grekov (°1958) played Woland.

2005
Vladimir Vladimirovich Bortko - Master i Margarita

In December 2005, the TV channel Rossia broadcast Master i Margarita, a series of ten episodes, directed by Vladimir Vladimirovich Bortko (°1946).

It was director Bortko's second attempt to film Bulgakov's masterpiece. In 2000 he had already been approached by the Kino-Most film studio to make the novel into a ten-part TV series under the title Визит Воланда [Vizit Volanda] or Woland's Visit. The studio was supposed to make the series for the television channel NTV, but at the last minute the company failed to reach a copyright agreement with Sergey Sergeevich Shilovsky (°1952), who, according to himself, was in negotiations with Nikita Androsiani and Svetlana Valerievna Migunova-Dali (°1957) with the intention to make an American production.

But later, with Rossia, it worked. And it did not go unnoticed. The filming lasted 9 months. More than 50 characters of different generations were involved in the series. The main roles were played by Oleg Valeryanovich Basilashvili (°1934) as Woland, Anna Leonidovna Kovalchuk (°1977) as Margarita, Aleksander Vladimirovich Galibin (°1955) as the master, Kirill Yurievich Lavrov (1925-2007) as Pontius Pilate, and Aleksander Gavrilovich Abdulov (1953-2008) as Koroviev. Valentin Iosifovich Gaft (1935-2020) played a remarkable double role. He played the roles of both Joseph Kaifa and the head of the secret service NKVD.

Unlike most of the previous screen adaptations, Vladimir Bortko followed the book very carefully. It is, of course, more comfortable when you have 10 times 52 minutes at your disposal rather than having to deliver a 90-minute film. The format of a TV series proved to be an ideal format for dealing with a complex, multidimensional work with many different characters. Bortko had already proved his talent in this area with his TV adaptation of The Idiot by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821-1881) in 2003. In 1988, he had also filmed the novella A Dog’s Heart, another work by Bulgakov. He respected the dialogues in the novel almost word for word because, as he said, Bulgakov himself had written the novel almost like a screenplay.

Despite the fact that the city of Moscow plays an important role in the novel, the scenes from the 1930s were shot in Saint Petersburg. «Today's Saint Petersburg is much more like the Moscow of the Stalin era than the Moscow of today», Bortko said. The Biblical scenes were shot in Bulgaria and Ukraine.

Bortko had to contend with quite a few problems during filming. A first problem was the display of the cat Behemoth. At first, he had appealed to the expertise in Hollywood from the famous Tom Woodruff (°1959), who had founded the company Amalgamated Dynamics and achieved success after success. However, his price tag for a Behemoth made with his animatronics technology was $5 million. But that was the total budget for the entire series, so Bortko was forced to use a mechanical puppet.

Another problem was the fact that, at the beginning of the shooting, actor Oleg Basilashvili suddenly felt a sharp cramp in his throat. He gasped and lost consciousness for several seconds. The diagnosis was serious: ligamentous hemorrhage. For a month, he was not allowed to speak at all from the doctors.

Speaking of voices, director Bortko didn't like the voice of actor Aleksander Galibin (the master). His voice cannot be heard in the film. Actor Sergey Vitalievich Bezrukov (°1973), who played the role of Yeshua, took on the voice of the master in the dubbing. And there were more voices that were recorded by other actors. The role of Aloisi Mogarych was played by actor Gennady Petrovich Bogachev (°1945), but we hear the voice of actor Andrey Yurievich Tolubeev (1945-2008). And Aphranius, played by Lithuanian actor Liubomiras Laucevičius (°1950), was dubbed by Oleg Basilashvili.

At first, the commission for the soundtrack of the series was promised to composer Andrey Pavlovich Petrov (1930-2006), who had written the symphonic fantasy The Master and Margarita in 1984. But later the job was assigned to Igor Yevgenevich Kornelyuk (°1962). Kornelyuk's music certainly contributed to the great success of the series. In addition to Kornelyuk's work, Bortko also used other musical fragments which Mikhail Bulgakov described in The Master and Margarita. We also hear Scheherazade by Nikolay Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908), Frühlingsstimmen by Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-899), His Excellency by Dmitri Timofeevich Lensky (1805-1860), and Hallelujah by Vincent Youmans (1898-1946)..

On December 19, 2005, the series aired on the TV channel Rossia. It immediately became a huge success, with a market share of almost 60% in Moscow.

Trivia

Just like the famous British film director Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) used to do, Vladimir Bortko often plays a so-called cameo or glimpse role in his films. In this series, he appears for 40 seconds in the second episode as the postman in Kiev delivering a telegram to Maksimilian Andreevich Poplavsky, Berlioz's uncle.

In the series, the dialogue from chapter 5 between the characters «near the cast-iron fence of Griboedov's» about the quality of the restaurant at the writer's house is not conducted by the characters Amvrosy and Foka. Vladimir Bortko replaced them with the characters of Grigory Rimsky and Styopa Likhodeev.

An important element of the novel is the fact that the master has no name. But when, in episode 8 of this series, Behemoth returns the manuscript of the novel to the master, we see the title page of the manuscript with the name of the author - Nikolay Afanasievich Maksudov. That is the name of the main character from Bulgakov's Theatrical Novel, which was translated in English as Black Snow. Director Aleksandar Petrović gave the same name to the master in the film The Master and Margareth from 1972.

In episode 5, Bortko made a historical mistake. From the master's cellar resounds the foxtrot Цветущий май [tsvetushchi may] or The Flowering Month of May by Artur Moritsevich Polonsky (1899-1989). But this foxtrot was not released until 1948. Bulgakov, who died in 1940, could not possibly have known it.

Woland's Curse

One of the themes related to The Master and Margarita is «death under mysterious circumstances». It became particularly topical after the shooting of Bortko's series. Several deaths of actors that have occurred since the filming of the television series confirmed the ideas of many Russians that there would be a curse on those who participate in screen adaptations of The Master and Margarita. Some actors died at a young age, others died in mysterious or even suspicious circumstances.

However, some of those events were not accurately reported. For example, there were media reports that the 29-year-old daughter of actor Valentin Iosifovich Gaft (1935-2020) would have hanged herself shortly after the shooting of the series. But that's not correct: Olga's body was discovered on August 24, 2002, three years before the shooting of the series. The following facts, however, are true.

On October 2, 2005, two months before the premiere, actor Aleksandr Vasilievich Chaban (1958-2005), who played the role of the NKVD investigator Sidorov, was found dead in his apartment. He was 47 years old and died under unclear circumstances. He disappeared shortly before the premiere and was found dead in his apartment.

Actor Aleksander Galibin, who played the role of the master, said that he had a terrible accident five days after the end of shooting. When he and his wife were returning from his mother-in-law's house, his car flipped over in a snow storm and ended up on a side street. However, he doesn't believe his role in the series has anything to do with it.

Aleksander Artyomovich Adabashyan (°1945), who played Mikhail Berlioz, suffered a heart attack shortly after filming. But like Galibin, he saw no connection with his role in the series. More than once, he joked about how members of the film crew used the devil's name at work. For example, they said that the evil spirits caused them to drink too much the day before the shootings.

Actor Stanislav Nikolaevich Landgraf (1939-2006), who played the role of the critic Latunsky, died on December 27, 2006. The cause of death was a heart attack. In the series, Margarita passionately wanted to kill his character with a shot to the heart.

On March 27, 2007, actor Yevgeny Petrovich Merkurev (1936-2007) died while fishing. He played the part of Vassili Stepanovich, the bookkeeper of the Commission on Spectacles and Entertainment of the Lighter Type. Due to a stupid accident, he fell through the ice on Lake Ladoga near Priozersk.

Kirill Lavrov, who played the role of Pontius Pilate, died on April 27, 2007, after several exhausting attempts to overcome leukemia. His daughter Maria helped him extend his life by six months as a donor for a bone marrow transplant.

Valery Sergeevich Zolotukhin (1941-2013), who played Nikanor Ivanovich Bosoy, lost his 27-year-old son Sergey on July 2, 2007. He committed suicide. Zolotuchin himself died on March 30, 2013. He was 71 years old and suffered from a brain tumor.

Aleksander Gavrilovich Abdulov (1953-2008), Koroviev's unsurpassed interpreter, died of lung cancer on January 3, 2008. Abdulov had smoked all his adult life. In August 2007, the actor had health problems, presumably an ulcer. In September of the same year, he was diagnosed with lung cancer in an Israeli clinic.

Abdulov had extremely tense relations with the tabloids in the last years of his life. He could become enraged by any false information spread about him and hated the unscrupulous journalists who tried to intrude into his personal life. All of this, along with the fact that he was very successful with women, resulted in various speculations about his death. One of them was that he would have been poisoned.

On April 7, 2008, Andrey Yurievich Tolubeev (1945-2008) died. He did not play a part in the series himself, but doubled the voice of Gennady Petrovich Bogachev (°1945) as Aloisy Mogarich. Tolubeev died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 63. His colleagues helped him by raising funds for treatment at the same Israeli clinic where Aleksander Abdulov had been treated. But the disease was stronger.

In 2009 and 2010, several actors from the series died. On January 25, 2009, Yuri Vasilyevich Oskin (1937-2009), the doorman Nikolay of the Griboedov restaurant, died at the age of 72. Three years later, his son, actor Tikhon Yurievich Oskin (1974-2012), also died as a result of a sudden cardiac arrest. On December 23, 2009, Galina Pavlovna Borkova (1936-2009), the shop assistant at the Torgsin department store, died at the age of 73. Valentina Viktorovna Egorenkova (1945-2010), the nurse at Doctor Stravinsky’s hospital, was 65 years old when she died on April 20, 2010. Five months after her, on August 20, 2010, actor Stanislav Aleksandrovich Sokolov (1940-2019), Pontius Pilate's secretary, died of postoperative sepsis at the age of 70.

Mikhail Vasilyevich Surov (1954-2011) was a somewhat shadowy person who was convicted several times for crimes and who was also active in the regional politics of his native Vologda. In his spare time, he played small roles in TV series. In Vladimir Bortko's series, he was an extra in the crowd that was not even included in the credits. On August 11, 2011, he tragically died in a car accident at the age of 55. He was thrown through the window and died on the spot.

Vladislav Borisovich Galkin (1971-2010), known for his role as the poet Ivan Bezdomny in the series, suffered from a drinking problem. In July 2009, he was charged with hooliganism with a weapon against a police officer in a bar. In December he was sentenced to a 14-month suspended sentence. In January 2010, Galkin underwent treatment at the Botkin Hospital in Moscow for an inflammation of the pancreas. A month later, on February 27, 2010, he was found dead in a rented apartment in Moscow «under suspicious circumstances». He was 38 years old. The official cause of death was cardiac arrest. However, according to his family and friends, he was murdered. They say it has been proven that other people had been in his room just before his death and that a sum of $130,000 had disappeared from the apartment.

On April 5, 2013, actor Dmitri Pavlovich Poddubny (1963-2013), who played the role of an NKVD agent in the series, died again under obscure circumstances. The day before, he had been admitted to the Municipal Hospital number 15 in Saint Petersburg. His wife said Poddubny had minor spasms and no injuries when she and her daughter took him to hospital. However, doctors said he died of a head injury and police reported that he already had this injury when he was hospitalized. According to Poddubny's wife, the doctors did not want to give her official documents with her husband's diagnosis.

And the list isn't finished yet. Ilya Lvovich Oleynikov (1947-2012), who played Grigory Rimsky, the findirector of the Variety Theatre, and Stanislav Yurievich Pryachin (1983-2012), who played a pickpocket, both died in 2012. Stanislav Ivanovich Fesyunov (1934-2014), the doorman of the Torgsin department store, also died in 2014. But those deaths showed no strange circumstances.

Maybe we shouldn't blame the novel on a curse. Creative people are often superstitious people, and under the influence of prejudice we could forget the expression which Mikhail Bulgakov put into Woland's mouth: «Yes, man is mortal, but that would be only half the trouble. The worst of it is that he's sometimes unexpectedly mortal - there's the trick!».

Speaking of Woland, just like Yuri Kara in 1992, Vladimir Bortko had initially offered this role to the actor Oleg Ivanovich Yankovsky (1944-2009). At the last minute, however, he refused, saying that in his opinion no one should be allowed to play the part of the devil or the part of God.

There are also more famous actors who refused to play in the series. Aleksander Aleksandrovich Kalyagin (°1942) refused the role of Berlioz, Vladimir Lvovich Mashkov (°1963) could have been the master, but he refused. Finally, Aleksander Vasilyevich Pankratov-Cherny (°1949) refused the role of Varenukha. However, Bortko decided not to give up on the actor and in exchange offered him the role of Stepan Likhodeev. He did agree to that.

2008
Giovanni Brancale - Il maestro e Margherita

Giovanni Brancale (°1955) is a pediatrician from Firenze, Italy. He is also a cinematographer. In 2008 Brancale made the film Il maestro e Margherita, inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel.

The story is set in modern-day Firenze where the mysterious Woland shows up. Together with his retinue, he creates disorder in the city by, among other things, reviving the ancient history of the procurator Pilate and his friend Yeshua, written by the master.

Real Bulgakov fans will probably be horrified by this film. The story does not take place in Moscow. The discrete protagonist of the film is the city of Firenze which transforms into the Jerusalem of Pilate's time and which becomes the setting for the story of Woland, the master and Margarita. Moreover, all the actors are amateurs, a fact that does not really contribute to great dramatic tension.

The film has never been successful. After having stayed in the drawer of a London distributor for several years, it was presented once on March 6, 2011, in the historic Odeon cinema in Firenze.

2012
Rinat Timerkaev

The Russian animation filmmaker Rinat Timerkaev (°1984) comes from Mikhaylovsk, a village southwest of Yekaterinburg.

Timerkaev and some co-workers began to prepare a long cartoon version of The Master and Margarita. He had hoped to finish the film in 2012. On his blog, Timerkaev regularly informed his followers about the progress of the project, with a fun teaser, several test runs, a poster and drawings of the many backgrounds he would use. But it became increasingly clear that the funding was going to be a problem.

In December 2015, the filmmaker informed his readers that he had stopped his efforts: «Бизнес по-российски, блин!» [Biznes po-rossiyski, blin!] or «Russian business, go to hell !» he wrote.

The film will never be realised, but we have managed to preserve a large part of the material already produced, which you can view on the «Master and Margarita» website.

Click here to read more about Rinat Timerkaev's project

2012
Scott Steindorff

In May 2010, Scott Steindorff (°1960), co-owner of the American production house Stone Village Pictures, signed an agreement with Sergey Sergeevich Shilovsky (°1952), the grandson of Yelena Sergeyevna, to make a screen adaptation of The Master and Margarita in Hollywood. After the signing of the contract, Shilovsky announced that from then on, and for a period of ten years, «no new film adaptation of ‘The Master and Margarita’ could be shot in any country».

Steindorff hoped to start filming in the fall of 2011. «It's going to be a big-budget film, and the financing is in place. So it will become a reality», Steindorff confirmed to us on June 8, 2011. Lots of names of possible directors and actors have been suggested, especially in the Russian press, but the only name that was ever confirmed was Caroline Thompson (°1956) who wrote the script. Thompson had previously made the scripts for The Addams Family, Edward Scissorhands and Black Beauty.

On 21 August 2011, Nikolay Novichkov (°1974), the Minister of Culture of Perm (Russia) informed the press that he had offered Stone Village Productions to shoot the planned film version of The Master and Margarita in Perm, but in the summer of 2014, Scott Steindorff told us that, due to tense political relations, he could no longer consider shooting in Russia. As a result, the film had to be shot in a studio, for which he had to try to find new budgets.

Unexpectedly, on February 14, 2017 , the Russian news agency TASS announced that the film rights for a Hollywood version of The Master and Margarita had been awarded to Svetlana Valerievna Migunova-Dali (°1975), co-owner of the Moscow production house Logos Film Company, and Grace Loh, the head of Hollywood's production house New Crime Productions. Migunova-Dali was previously mentioned here when we talked about the first attempt of filming The Master and Margarita by Vladimir Bortko.

When asked for comment, Scott Steindorff replied laconically, «That's a complete farce. No studio is going to venture into that now». From other sources we heard, however, that Steindorff’s option had not been renewed and that the rights were thus available again.

2015
Katariina Lillqvist - Mistr a Markétka

The cooperative film producer Camera Cagliostro was founded by the Finnish film director Katariina Lillqvist (°1963) in 1992, initially focusing on Czech/Finnish co-productions. It was always about puppet films, as this was the director's main subject when she studied in the former Czechoslovakia.

In 2014, Lillqvist announced that she was working on her first full-length puppet animation, an 80-minute version of The Master and Margarita. Camera Cagliostro would be the main producer. The main partners in the co-production were the Finnish public TV broadcaster Yleisradio (Yle) and the renowned Polish animation studio Se-ma-for. In addition, partners from Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, Poland, Canada and France were also involved.

In June 2014, Katariina Lillqvist informed us that the premiere was expected in 2017. But the film isn't finished yet. A five-minute pilot film is already available. It was first screened on May 7, 2013, on the occasion of the International Animation Film Festival in Třeboň, Czech Republic, and you can watch it on our website.

Click here to watch Katariina Lillqvist's pilot film

2017
Charlotte Waligòra - Le maître et Marguerite

«Margarita wakes up in Paris in 2017. Woland keeps her close to him in an apartment in Billancourt, where she has been living with Behemoth since the late 1930s. The master wanders in the Sheol, the realm of the dead, obsessed with his novel. Margarita meets Jesus in the Paris metro, and tells this to Woland at a ball, where the great criminals of the 20th century are present».

The above text is an excerpt from the announcement of Le maître et Marguerite, a 101-minute film that was shot in Paris in 2017. The film is a project by Charlotte Waligòra (°1976), art historian and critic, writer and director. She received her doctorate in the history of modern and contemporary art from the Université Charles de Gaulle in Lille, France, in 2008. She takes on the role of Margarita herself.

The other characters are played by Michel Baibabaeff (Woland), Vadim Essaïan (Behemoth), Hatem Taïeb (Jesus) and Giovanni Marino Luna (the master).

2017
Baz Luhrmann

On February 14, 2017, the Russian news agency TASS announced that the film rights for a Hollywood version of The Master and Margarita had been awarded to Svetlana Valerievna Migunova-Dali (°1975) and Grace Loh. At that moment it became clear that producer Schott Steindorff had to abandon his plans. The ladies would receive the help of producer Michael Lang, who was also already involved in the plans of Roman Polanski and Ray Manzarek in the 80s.

After that, we heard nothing about this project for almost three years, but on December 11, 2019, the news site Deadline Hollywood reported that Migunova-Dali and Loh had signed an agreement with the well-known film director Baz Luhrmann (°1962) to realise the film.

Luhrmann is known for his films Romeo + Juliet and The Great Gatsby, both with Leonardo DiCaprio (°1974), and Australia and Moulin Rouge!, both with Nicole Kidman (°1967). He has also beenmentioned as a possible director for The Master and Margarita when Scott Steindorff still had the film rights.

When we announced the news about Baz Luhrmann as a possible director on our Facebook page, the link was shared massively, although the reactions were widely divergent. They ranged from «Fantastic» to «Oh my god. I am afraid». The skeptics especially feared that Luhrmann is too headstrong to respect the spirit of author Mikhail Bulgakov's work.

One of the co-producers of the project is Baz & Co, a company which Baz Luhrmann had used to produce Moulin Rouge!. A co-founder of Baz & Co is Leonard Valentinovich Blavatnik (°1957). This Odessa (Ukraine) born billionaire owns, among other companies, Warner Music, one of the largest music publishers in the world. But… Blavatnik also appears to have an interest in another film adaptation of The Master and Margarita. You will read more about this in a moment.

2020
Nikolay Lebedev

About a year and a half after the news about Baz Luhrmann, we heard from Moscow that the television channel Kanal 1 and the production house Mars Media also wanted to realise a film adaptation of The Master and Margarita, but in Russia. Kanal 1 is the channel that produced the successful TV series Master i Margarita by director Vladimir Bortko in 2005. Mars Media has a slightly less solid reputation among Bulgakov lovers. In August 2014 they had announced with much drumming that they were preparing a ten-part TV series about the life of Mikhail Bulgakov under the title Жизнь и искушения Михаила Булгакова [Zhizn i iskusheniya Mikhaila Bulgakova] or The Life and Temptations of Mikhail Bulgakov, but it has never been realised.

Anyway, they announced that director Nikolay Igorevich Lebedev (°1966) had already prepared a script for the film.

One of the producers of the Russian project would be Amedia productions, a company of the aforementioned Leonard Blavatnik. He would collaborate with Ruben Levonovich Dishdishyan (°1959) of Mars Media, Igor Aleksandrovich Tolstunov (°1957) of Profit , and Konstantin Lvovich Ernst (°1961) of Kanal 1.

On February 6, 2020, Igor Tolstunov tried to clarify the existence of the two projects. He told the RIA Novisti news agency that the Hollywood project and the Russian film would not affect each other. «These are two unrelated projects. What they do abroad does not affect our film. Our shooting probably won't start in March as foreseen, but we're working on it steadily», he said. Irina Danilova, responsible for the Public Relations of Mars Media, added that the company would communicate «soon» on the progress of the project.

2022
Michael Lockshin - Woland

The next communication from Mars Media did not come «soon». It was not until April 2021 that the production house announced that Nikolay Lebedev's film plans had been abandoned. According to producer Ruben Dishdishyan, problems with the financing and the Covid-19 pandemic were the basis of the decision.

At the same time, however, Dishdishyan let it be known that the project has not completely died. Work would be done on a film titled Woland, which would be realised by director Mikhail Arnoldovich Lockshin (°1981), who made his debut in 2020 with the film Серебряные коньки [Serebryanye konki] or The Silver Skates. Lockshin grew up in the United States and in Russia, and commutes between Moscow, Berlin and Los Angeles for his work. He mainly has experience with advertising films for Nike and McDonalds, among others.

The screenplay for Woland was written by the Russian playwright Roman Sergeevich Kantor (°1984). It's not a real representation of the story of The Master and Margarita as we know it, but it was inspired by it. It is about a famous writer who finds himself in the middle of a scandal. He wrote a novel that was banned, and shortly after that, the premiere of his play was cancelled. Despite these setbacks, the writer embarked on a new novel, in which Moscow is visited by a mysterious foreigner named Woland. Woland's primary goal is to punish anyone who has wronged the writer. Together with his striking entourage, he does this sometimes comically, sometimes horribly. At the same time, the writer falls in love with Margarita. However, she is married and as he soon discovers, she can never leave her husband. As despair mounts, the writer begins to lose his grip on reality and starts to believe that only Woland can help him be with Margarita.

On May 19, 2021, at an event of the Russian Film Fund, the names of the main actors of the film Woland were unintentionally revealed. Due to a technical error, the microphones were not switched off when they were announced to a select group of people. A day later, the production company Mars Media could do nothing but confirm the growing rumors. The roles of the master and Margarita will be performed by Yevgeny Edvardovich Tsyganov (°1979) and his wife Julia Viktorovna Snigir (°1983). He became internationally known for his role in the film Mermaids by Anna Melikian from 2007. She became known for leading roles in, among others, the television series Catherine the Great in 2015, and The Road to Calvary in 2017.

The shootings for Woland started on July 5, 2021. The German actor August Diehl (°1976) plays the role of Woland. Diehl is known for his roles in Inglorious Bastards, directed by Quentin Tarantino in 2009, The Young Karl Marx, directed by Raoul Peck in 2017, and A Hidden Life, directed by Terrence Malick in 2019.

For the cat Behemoth, the Mars Media would like to realise a three-dimensional animation with the technologies used by Disney in 2019 for the remake of The Lion King.

Nikolay Lebedev, who wrote the original script for the film (which then was still called The Master and Margarita), but who unexpectedly had to make another film, commented on the turn of events, while he could not hide his disappointment: «This project was an important part of my life. I have worked with heart and soul on its development and I deeply regret that I, for reasons beyond my control, could not finish it. But as François Truffaut once said: 'The history of cinema is full of painful disappointments'. Let's move on».

On November 8, 2021, actress Julia Snigir announced on her Instagram account that the shooting for the film was complete, and on Jauary 20, 2022, the Russian branch of Universal Pictures International and Mars Media announced that they had signed an agreement under which UPI will act as a distributor of the film.

On February 9, 2022, the company launched a trailer of the film which you can watch on this page with English subtitles.

On July 20, 2022, it was announced that the film was re-scheduled to be released in May 2023 due to «production delays».

In August 2022, it became known that the film was stuck in post-production as a result of Universal Pictures pulling out of Russia due to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, the Kremlin-controlled Фонд Кино [Fond Kino] or the Federal Fund for Economic and Social Support for Russian Cinematography declined to provide further funding for the film. This refusal may well have to do with director Michael Lockshin's attitude to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He publishes messages about the atrocities of the Russian soldiers in Ukraine on his Facebook page. As a result, the fate of his film Woland became uncertain. Due to the cessation of financing, the expensive special effects such as the talking cat could not be realized. «So now we're being censored not only in the West, but in Russia itself». The production house Mars Media has announced that the film would premiere in August 2023.

On April 28, 2023, the production house Mars Media announced that the title of the film had been changed. Woland would simply become The Master and Margarita. That would have been intended to «combine the power and the spirit of the novel with the story we want to tell the audience in our film». It was confirmed that the film would be released in 2023, but an exact date could not be given yet.

On July 10, 2023, they announced that the film would be distributed by Атмосфера кино [Atmosfera Kino], and the release date was postponed again: it would now be January 25, 2024. And, believe it or not... the film did indeed premiere on that day.

Click here to read more about Michael Lockshin's film

Subtitles project

Most of the films and series based on works of Mikhail Bulgakov have been subtitled by your webmaster in English, French and Dutch. Some of them also in German, Italian and Spanish.

Click here to find out more about our subtitles project.

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