So blistering a critique of authoritarianism is Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel The Master and Margarita that it’s hard to imagine how Vladimir Putin’s Russia could ever have approved a new film adaption. The Soviet-era cult classic, written in the 1930s, exposes the disingenuity of the communist regime by mocking its culture of censorship, bureaucracy, and persecution. Bulgakov brandishes interwoven narratives, fantastical characters, and absurdist flourishes to underscore that truth and memory can