On Tuesday, April 2 at 5:30pm, director Michael Lockshin will join students and faculty at Bard College for a screening of Master and Margarita (2024), followed by a Q&A. This event is held in conjunction with Professor Olga Voronina’s course Hope in the Dark: Eurasian Fantasy and Folklore. It is co-sponsored by the Center for Moving Image Arts, Russian and Eurasian Studies Program, and Film and Electronic Arts Program at Bard College.

“…one of the most dramatic and charged Russian film debuts in recent memory. The movie refashions the novel as a revenge tragedy about a writer’s struggle under censorship, borrowing from the story of Bulgakov’s own life” (Paul Sonne, New York Times).

“… a blistering critique of Soviet power and authoritarianism… a box-office smash and a cultural phenomenon …” (Christopher Vourlias, Variety).

“As Russia becomes more repressive, it is possible that Master and Margarita could be one of the last films of its kind, a blockbuster where the criticism of the state lies on the surface.” (Andrew Roth, Guardian).

The American-Russian film-maker Michael Lockshin was born in the US and moved to the Soviet Union as a child in 1986. His first feature film, Silver Skates (2020) became the first Russian-language original film on Netflix. Lockshin directed and coauthored The Master and Margarita after Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel, composed in 1928–1940 and published posthumously in 1967–68. Released on January 25, the film was blasted by pro-Kremlin propagandists for its “sharp, anti-Soviet, anti-modern Russian theme.” Russian ideologues’ appeals to cancel Lockshin and his film have been brought about by the director’s pronouncements against the war and his support for Ukraine.