Master and Margarita, the novel, courtesy of Wikimedia, nder the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International by Brad Verter,

Vanity Fair asks:

Why Is Vladimir Putin So Afraid of The Master and Margarita?

And answers:

Lockshin’s adaptation of the acclaimed Russian novel by Mikhail Bulgakov was an enormous feat—with a reported cost of $17 million, a plethora of special effects, a storyline that’s a full-throated critique of authoritarianism, and a message the filmmaker sums up as: “How do you remain free as a writer in the face of censorship?” It’s a subject that was difficult to tackle in Russia even before the “special military operation” in Ukraine, to borrow the language of Vladimir Putin’s regime, began in 2022. It is an even more daring movie now as dissident artists, authors, and journalists are being thrown in jail, banned, and in some cases murdered.

Lockshin’s film was released on January 25. To date, more than five million Russians have seen The Master and Margarita in theaters, making it one of the best-performing films of the year. Audience reactions have been ecstatic: Finally, they’re able to see a film critical of the regime. They have discovered the story of a writer on trial for the plays he has created, ostracized by his peers. They have laughed at scenes that parody propaganda and others in which bureaucrats outdo each other in their stupidity.

…

Putin’s propaganda machine went into overdrive the day after the film’s theatrical release. First, star television presenter Tigran Keosayan blasted Lockshin’s “anti-Russian” stance and urged authorities to launch an investigation into the film’s production. Vladimir Solovyov, considered one of Russia’s main propogandists, then asked on his program—one of Russian’s most viewed television shows, “How could this unpatriotic film have been authorized? Is this a special operation?”

Readovka, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel with over two million viewers, took aim at the filmmaker, describing him as a “notorious Russophobe” guilty of having expressed his opposition to the Ukraine war on TV networks. Finally, Sputnik radio host Trofim Tatarenkov compared Lockshin to the “enemies of the people” who would have been assassinated in Stalin’s time.

From Los Angeles, the filmmaker describes navigating his work’s reception as if he’s a sailor watching a tempest through a telescope. But the sun is shining in California, far from the storm raging in Moscow. Nevertheless, he avoids some of the questions I ask about the actors who remain in Russia. “Everyone’s scared over there,” he says.

Glory to Ukraine!