The article reports on the movie adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita," directed by Michael Lockshin, which is partly a subversive sendup of state tyranny and censorship and satirizes an authoritarian rule, that is shown in theaters in Russia amid the war in Ukraine and repression in Russia. It raises question about how the movie was shot in Russia and discusses the restoration of Stalinism reflected in the movie, as well as the discomfort among the audience.