The allegorical “The Master and Margarita,” a new film adapted from a Soviet novel of the same name, tells the story of those oppressed by Russian censorship. In Russia, suppression remains a strong theme in public life as its war against Ukraine continues. 

On Nov. 7, members of the Tulane University community gathered for a private screening of the film, a high-budget 2024 adaptation of the iconic Russian novel by Mikhail Bulgakov. An hour-long discussion with the film’s director, Michael Lockshin, followed the screening. Russian program director Lidia Zhigunova and associate professors Oleg Gredil and Denys Bondar organized the event. 

“The Master and Margarita” is an infamously complex novel with no singular protagonist or distinct story arc. It weaves together multiple plotlines, including a love story, a contemporary political commentary and a religiously allegorical novel-within-a-novel.  

One of the lead characters, a writer known to readers only as the Master, is exiled from Soviet writer circles because of the political dissent expressed in his writing. He completes his novel in secret amid extreme state censorship and deep suspicion surrounding him, which was typical under Joseph Stalin’s regime. The Master’s novel is about the Biblical figure Pontius Pilate and serves as a religious allegory for the Communist Party and Soviet censorship.  

The censorship of the Master reflects the real-life experiences of Bulgakov himself, whom the Soviet regime heavily censored. In fact, “The Master and Margarita” was not published until 26 years after Bulgakov’s death, according to Lockshin. 

Lockshin moved from Houston to Moscow at five years old when his Communist-sympathizer parents decided to leave the U.S. and restart their lives in the Soviet Union.  

Lockshin first gained notoriety in 2021 for directing the first Russian Netflix original film, “Silver Skates,” which opened the door to directing what would become one of the most expensive Russian movies ever made, “The Master and Margarita.” 

Lockshin described the surreal process of producing such a politically charged film amid the intense political turmoil, propaganda and sweeping censorships of writers and artists across Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.  

He explained that “The Master and Margarita” began with the daunting yet simple goal of adapting the beloved novel into a film. However, when it was completed in 2023, the atmosphere in Russia had completely changed. The Russian state had become a reflection of the Soviet regime that “The Master and Margarita” critiques.  

“When we were shooting this, we thought this was about the past still… it was about the 30s, it was about Stalin’s repressions and purges,” Lockshin said. “In 2020, it was a very different world.” 

Because of Lockshin’s anti-war and pro-Ukraine stance, Russian producers involved with the film were hesitant about following through with the project. As the war progressed and Russian government censorships harshened, “the themes of the movie were becoming more evidently about Russia,” Lockshin said. “We didn’t know if it would even be finished.” 

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin began increasing restrictions and censorships of Russian journalists, artists and writers.  

According to The Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, any individual in Russia who receives “support from foreign states or is under foreign influence and is engaged in political activities in Russia… or disseminating messages and materials for an unlimited number of people” is designated a “foreign agent.” They must label any content they publish with the phrase “иноагент”, which is “foreign agent” in English, in a large font.  

The State Duma, a congress, created this version of the law in June 2022, replacing the old definition of “foreign agent,” which was defined as an association that participates in any political activity and receives foreign funding. Since the war started, the Russian government has increased the scope of these laws to include various individual activists, nongovernmental organizations and independent journalists. 

When Lockshin finally began editing the movie after about a year in limbo, “theater plays [were] being canceled and taken out, writers being sent and put into jail,” he said. Countless sources detail the experiences of Russian artists, activists and journalists who fled the country or were exiled, imprisoned or killed because of their anti-Putin or anti-war stances. 

To release the film in Russia, the production team of “The Master and Margarita” marketed it as a “love story” and removed Lockshin’s name from the release.  

“They told the government… we can’t not release this novel, it’s the favorite novel of the nation,” said Lockshin.  

The attempts to downplay the film’s relevance to current-day Russian policies were not enough to bypass the Kremlin, a domestic Russian military force. 

The film was released in January. 

“A few days after it was released… this huge scandal started — which even I didn’t expect, nobody expected — where, all of a sudden, they started to call this an American plot to destroy Russia from inside…[they] would call me a criminal and terrorist for making it,” Lockshin said. 

The State Duma, pro-Putin nationalists and the most prominent outlets of state propaganda became interested in the film’s release, he said. “This was on state news with… all the top TV presenters.” 

“It was very surreal,” said Lockshin. “They were cosplaying the characters from the movie because of the way they were critiquing it, and they were at the same time also cosplaying the critics of Bulgakov originally back in the 30s, who were censoring him.” 

Despite the Russian government’s constant threats to remove the movie from cinemas, “The Master and Margarita” became one of the top-grossing films in Russian history. An estimation from May said the film earned $26 million in Russia. 

“Every day almost there was even a hashtag like, ‘go watch it before they pull it,’” Lockshin said.  

Tulane students who attended the screening expressed an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the film. Many asked Lockshin questions about the production, his artistic choices and his interpretation of Bulgakov’s complex ideas.  

“I understood immediately why it was banned,” junior Xen Troutman said. “The irony of a movie about Russian censorship being censored by Russia.” 

“While the movie was exceptionally well filmed and acted, I found it a bit of a struggle to understand why it made certain turns,” sophomore Peter Karasyov said. “I just hope that this can be seen by a wider audience sometime soon because I think that there is much to discuss, and it is tough to find people to discuss the film with given its very limited release.” 

Due to restrictions around the film’s presentation to the American public, the screening was open only to Tulane students and a private guest list. For now, the film can only be shown for “educational purposes” in the U.S. due to legal issues surrounding the international nature of the film’s funding. It is unclear when the film will be released for the U.S. public. 

Despite these restrictions, Lockshin is presenting the film to universities and students across the country, including Tulane University, Brandeis University, Harvard University, Columbia University and the University of Illinois Chicago.