The Master and Margarita is a Russian TV adaption of Soviet writer Mikhail Bulgakov’s eponymous novel. The adaption’s director and screenwriter is Vladimir Bortko.
Bortko was not the first to attempt to transform Bulgakov’s novel to film. Other directors – Andrzej Vajda, Aleksandar Petrovic, and Iurii Kara – tried their hand and achieved limited success. Of all Master and Margarita adaptions, Bortko’s is clearly the best.Bortko has also made other superb literary adaptions, including Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog (1988) and Doestoevsky’s Idiot (2003).
The free video for The Master and Margarita comes only in Russian. You can find English subtitles on subs.com and then add them to the video yourself.