“The film is not responsible for the director” – Kommersant FM

The film “The Master and Margarita” collected 428 million rubles in just one weekend. Thus, the film topped the film distribution in Russia and the CIS. Meanwhile, a scandal erupts around the tape. The reason is the position of director Mikhail Lokshin, who was suspected of sympathizing with Ukraine. Kommersant FM political commentator Dmitry Drize believes that banning the film will only fuel interest in it.

In Russian culture, or rather, in its most advanced part – cinema – there is again a scandal, and a loud one. The focus is not just anything, but the immortal masterpiece of Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”. There is such a mystical belief that you shouldn’t take on this topic, oh, it’s not worth it. But we will not touch on this difficult issue, because our job is to bring very interesting information to a respected audience. Mysticism is still on the other side.

So, the premiere of the new film, so to speak, in a modern, progressive version, was a great success in the country. Although, as they say, it depends on taste… Be that as it may, the film was released in official Russian distribution, and its budget includes government funding from the Ministry of Culture, albeit partially. Next came the premiere, and in just one weekend the film received record fees of 428 million rubles.

And then it turns out that the director, it turns out, is not ours. And perhaps he even filmed all this with the aim of discrediting Soviet and Russian reality. The issue is being discussed at the level of federal television and on other patriotic platforms, and there are angry calls to resolve the issue to the fullest extent.

Who is this most mysterious enemy? His name is Michael or Mikhail Lokshin. Born in 1981 in the USA, and, as it turns out, into a very famous family. His parents are Arnold and Lauren Lockshin. Back in 1986, they immigrated from the USA to the USSR because of their communist beliefs. It was a very big story.

The Lokshin family with little Michael-Mikhail in their arms did not leave Soviet screens. They denounced American imperialism and in every possible way praised the peace-loving, democratic USSR. By the way, the latter ceased to exist five years later.

Now Lokshin Sr., already at an advanced age, lives in the Russian Federation and still condemns his homeland. He seemed to have separated from his son, again, for political reasons. By the way, the Lokshin family initially fled the Russian Empire due to Jewish pogroms. And you say “mysticism”, here comes Bulgakov.

But let’s return from the past to the present. There is good reason to believe that the future fate of Lokshin Jr.’s film at the box office is unenviable.

Theoretically, it would be possible to adhere to the principle that the film is not responsible for the director, and not deprive the public of a film that they seem to have liked. However, we will not touch on this issue. The situation, you understand, is difficult, something has to be sacrificed, nothing can be done.

So let’s go back to the thirties of the last century and remember Bulgakov’s letter to the Soviet government, in which Mikhail Afanasyevich writes that, according to his calculations, in ten years of his literary activity he received only three positive reviews and 298 hostile and abusive ones. This is reflected in the novel “The Master and Margarita”.

At the same time, Joseph Vissarionovich, as you know, was very fond of the play “Days of the Turbins” and watched it at the Moscow Art Theater as many as 15 times. So it seems that the past sometimes intersects with the present. But what can be said with a great deal of confidence is that manuscripts really don’t burn, and, apparently, films don’t either.

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