The Master and Margarita

The Master and Margarita (2011)

Мастер и Маргарита

Manuscripts don't burn

The Master is a talented writer in Moscow working on a manuscript about Jesus and Pontius Pilate. The Moscow authorities are harassing Master by surveillance and intimidation. His assistant and muse, Margarita, tries to help the Master through the supernatural powers she got from the devil, Woland, who is visiting Moscow.

Date of release
2011-04-07
TMDB
5.5 / 10 (33)
Runtime
2h 8m
Genres
Drama, Romance, Fantasy
Director
Yuriy Kara

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $15M
  • Based on: The Master and Margarita

The Master and Margarita is a Russian film made by director Yuri Kara, based on the novel of the same name by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov.

Background

Although the film was made in 1994 (or 1993), it was not released until April 4, 2011, and played only in Russia. Despite its large budget and a well-known cast, the producers decided not to release it because they found the director's cut to be unacceptable. The soundtrack, recorded by Alfred Schnittke, was released on CD.

When journalist Valeriy Kitshin of the Rossiyskaya Gazeta saw the film in a private screening at the Moscow International Film Festival in 2005, he tried to convince the producers to release it. However, Sergey Shilovsky, the grandson of Mikhail Bulgakov's third wife Elena Sergeevna, claimed to have the copyright on Bulgakov's literary inheritance, and asked for payment.

A bootleg low-quality version, 200 minutes long, was leaked on the internet in December 2006.

On November 15, 2010, the Russian film distributor Luxor announced that they had bought the rights to the film. It was released on April 4, 2011. Luxor shortened the film to 123 minutes from the original director's cut, which was 207 minutes long. The theatrical version was released on DVD and Blu-ray on May 3, 2011.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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