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Why Russia’s Propaganda Machine Is on the Attack Against a Blockbuster Adaptation of ‘The Master and Margarita’
A blockbuster adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's iconic, anti-authoritarian novel has provoked a vicious campaign against its U.S.-born director.
Just days after the Russian blockbuster “The Master and Margarita” surged to the top of the domestic box office, Kremlin cronies, pro-war propagandists and an army of online trolls have waged a campaign to discredit the film and its director, Michael Lockshin, a U.S. citizen who was raised in the Soviet Union and has been outspoken in his opposition to the war in Ukraine. A source close to the film, who asked not to be named out of fear of potential repercussions, tells Variety that the movie’s staggering success and pointed critique of authoritarian rule has struck a nerve in right-wing circles at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin has cracked down on any form of dissent. Influential TV presenter Tigran Keosayan, whose wife, Margarita Simonyan, is the head of state-controlled broadcaster RT, blasted Lockshin’s “anti-Russian positions” in a Telegram post and demanded an investigation into the film, “starting from producers to law enforcement agencies.”
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