The Master and Margarita (TV series 1988)
Encyclopedia
The Master and Margarita (Mistrz i Małgorzata) is a Polish television production of Polish Film Producers Teams (Zespoły Polskich Producentów Filmowych), based on the novel
The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven around the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and one of the foremost Soviet satires, directed against a...

 by Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...

.

Three layers

The film is an adaptation of the novel The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven around the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and one of the foremost Soviet satires, directed against a...

 written by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhail Bulgakov
Mikhaíl Afanásyevich Bulgákov was a Soviet Russian writer and playwright active in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his novel The Master and Margarita, which The Times of London has called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.-Biography:Mikhail Bulgakov was born on...

. Three storylines are interwoven.
  • The first one is a satire of the ‘30s in the 20th century, the period during which Joseph Stalin
    Stalinism
    Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...

     is in power in the Soviet Union
    Soviet Union
    The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

    . The demon Woland
    Woland
    Woland is a fictional character in the book The Master and Margarita by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. Woland is the mysterious foreigner and professor whose visit to Moscow sets the plot rolling and turns the world upside-down. He appears differently to different people. "[t]he first says...

     comes to Moscow
    Moscow
    Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

     to have his annual Spring Ball of the Full Moon. Together with his demonic suite, he challenges the corrupt lucky ones, bureaucrats and profiteers of that period in an hilarious way..
  • The second one is set in the biblical Yershalaim, and describes the inner struggle of Pontius Pilate
    Pontius Pilate
    Pontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...

     before, during and after the conviction and execution of Yeshua Ha Nozri
    Jesus
    Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

    .
  • The third one tells the love story between a nameless writer in Moscow in the ’30s and his lover Margarita. The Master has written a novel on Pontius Pilate, a subject which was taboo in the officially atheistic Soviet Union.

Differences with the novel

This series follows faithfully the storyline of Bulgakov’s original novel, except for the nighttime scenes. While many scenes in Bulgakov’s novel are playing in the dark, it's always daytime in this adaptation. Due to the limited budget, Wojtyszko said he had focused on good acting rather than on special effects.

Credits

  • Director: Maciej Wojtyszko
  • Screenplay: Maciej Wojtyszko
  • Production: CWPiFTV Poltel (Warszawa)
  • Camera: Dariusz Kuc

Main cast

  • Margarita: Anna Dymna
    Anna Dymna
    Anna Dymna is a Polish TV, film and theatre actress. Foundress of a charity foundation Mimo Wszystko...

  • Master: Władysław Kowalski
  • Woland
    Woland
    Woland is a fictional character in the book The Master and Margarita by the Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov. Woland is the mysterious foreigner and professor whose visit to Moscow sets the plot rolling and turns the world upside-down. He appears differently to different people. "[t]he first says...

    : Gustaw Holoubek
    Gustaw Holoubek
    Gustaw Holoubek was a Polish actor, director, member of the Polish Sejm, and a senator.Holoubek participated in the September Campaign and was a prisoner of war during the Nazi German Occupation of Poland...

  • Bezdomny: Grzegorz Gierak
  • Pontius Pilate
    Pontius Pilate
    Pontius Pilatus , known in the English-speaking world as Pontius Pilate , was the fifth Prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, from AD 26–36. He is best known as the judge at Jesus' trial and the man who authorized the crucifixion of Jesus...

    : Zbigniew Zapasiewicz
    Zbigniew Zapasiewicz
    Zbigniew Zapasiewicz was one of the most prominent post-war Polish actors, as well as a theatre director and pedagogue.- Biography :...

  • Koroviev: Janusz Michałowski
  • Azazello: Mariusz Benoit
  • Yeshua
    Jesus
    Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

    : Tadeusz Bradecki
  • Behemoth: Zbigniew Zamachowski
    Zbigniew Zamachowski
    Zbigniew Zamachowski is a Polish actor.Zamachowski graduated the actor's faculty in "PWSFTViT" in Łódź. He began his acting career in 1981 and in 1989 had a co-starring role in Part Ten of director Krzysztof Kieślowski's film series, The Decalogue...


More screen adaptations

Giovanni Brancale - Il Maestro e Margherita - 2008 (movie picture) Vladimir Bortko
Vladimir Bortko
Vladimir Vladimirovich Bortko , born on May 7, 1946 in Moscow, is a Russian film director, screenwriter and producer.-Biography:...

 - Master i Margarita - 2005 (TV series) Ibolya Fekete - A Mester és Margarita - 2005 (movie picture) Sergei Desnitsky - Master i Margarita - 1996 (TV film) Yuri Kara
Yuri Kara
Yuri Viktorovich Kara , born on 12 November 1954 in Stalino, is a Russian film director, screenwriter and producer.-Biography:Yuri Kara was born on 12 November 1954 in the Ukrainian city of Stalino, which is now called Donetsk....

 - Master i Margarita - 1994 (movie picture) Paul Bryers
Paul Bryers
Paul Bryers, born in Liverpool in 1953, is a British film director, screenwriter and fiction author.-Biography:Paul Bryers studied Modern history, politics and economy at the University of Southampton. Later he joined the Daily Mirror’s training scheme for journalists...

 - Incident in Judea - 1992 (TV-film) Andras Szirtes - Forradalom Után - 1990 (movie picture) Andrzej Wajda - Pilatus und Andere
Pilate and Others
Pilate and Others is a 1972 German drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda, based on the 1967 novel The Master and Margarita by the Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov, although it focuses on the parts of the novel set in biblical Jerusalem, however events which have occurred in it, are transferred to the...

  - 1972 (TV film) Aleksandar Petrović - Il Maestro e Margherita
The Master and Margaret
The Master and Margaret , is a 1972 Italian-Yugoslav film directed by Aleksandar Petrović.The film is an adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's 1967 novel The Master and Margarita, although it mainly focuses on the parts of the novel set in 1920s Moscow....

 - 1972 (movie picture)

To be expected:
Baz Luhrmann
Baz Luhrmann
Mark Anthony "Baz" Luhrmann is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and producer best known for The Red Curtain Trilogy, which includes his films Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!...

 - The Master and Margarita - 2012 (movie picture) Rinat Timerkaev - Master i Margarita - 2012 (animated movie picture)

External links

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