Devil to pay over film of Bulgakov's novel

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Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Wednesday November 3, 2004
The Guardian


Genius... Mikhail Bulgakov

Russia's Orthodox church has reacted with dismay to a film of the seminal novel The Master and Margarita, saying it offers a version of the Gospel that is "nothing but negative" and fearing it will offend or confuse many believers.

Last month a Russian director began filming a version of the novel Mikhail Bulgakov wrote in the 1930s. The result, the first Russian version of the widely praised masterpiece, will be shown nationwide on Russian TV as a 10-part series.

The novel is a satire on the Revolution, and in its form pioneered the "magic realism" genre. It contains passages in which a character called Professor Woland - a variant of the name of Satan, who appears in Goethe's Faust, and a thinly disguised pseudonym for the devil - narrates the life, trial and crucifixion of character called Yeshua - a pseudonym for Jesus Christ.

A senior Orthodox official told the Guardian that cinema was "not an adequate means of interpreting the Gospel" - icons were more appropriate. Father Mikhail Dudko, head of the secretariat for church and society, said: "We Christians know four gospels, and in Bulgakov's book we see a kind of fifth: a gospel narrated by Satan, Woland in the book. And the interpretation is in Satan's favour. Our reaction to such an interpretation can be nothing but negative."

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,2763,1342108,00.html