In this film in an hour with little compiled plot moves of several Bulgakov works. However, they are compiled in such a way that it is not very clear why this is done at all. It is clear that one of the central points is the parallel between the fate of the writer Polyakov (read, Bulgakov) and Moliere (as the hero of the writer’s work, not the French comediographer as such). It follows that the director wanted to emphasize the political component, the problems of the creative personality and the authoritarian/totalitarian state. But he did it very ineptly. Glued together from different primary sources, the film cracks at the seams. We do not have time to get used to the image of a communal apartment, as we find ourselves in the department for litdells, and then in the theater, where Polyakov’s play is staged, although in the beginning it was generally about a novel. The transition from one cinematopos to another is associated with the complete loss of the topos of the earlier one, does not save the fact that actors play here most often several roles, which should connect different storylines and seems to even connect, only it is completely uninteresting to comprehend, because it does not add much meaning to the picture.
There is a feeling that the picture is shot with an eye on the “Master and Margarita”, where the intersection of storylines is a central compositional technique, only instead of Bulgakov, Kafka actually comes to mind. All these endless wanderings-moving through the interiors, the general feeling of absurdity-automation, hanging over life, etc., really make you remember the European writer. But it doesn't make it any easier. It seems that the director has set his sights on global allegory, but being clearly deprived of budget, he shot what he could shoot. Could, in terms of budget. And it could, in terms of its directorial skill, which is simply not enough. Therefore, in an hour or so, not only can we not get an answer to the question “Why did we need to shoot such a picture at all,” but we simply do not want to ask this question, since it becomes completely unnecessary in the context of extremely mediocre, albeit with a swing at “avant-garde”, the level of the picture.
5 out of 10