Michael Lockshin's Russian-language film adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" is finally set for a US theatrical release on 18 September, following a prolonged legal dispute. Luminosity Pictures will distribute the restored director's cut, ending years of uncertainty over whether the acclaimed film would reach American cinemas. The release matters because the film's themes of censorship and resistance under an authoritarian state have taken on renewed significance amid its own turbulent path to distribution.

Lockshin finished the film shortly before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and by its January 2024 release the Kremlin deemed its content too controversial, criticising both the director, an outspoken Ukraine supporter, and the film itself while demanding cuts. Despite this, it became the highest-grossing 18+ release in Russian box office history. Sanctions against Russia and competing claims over rights to Bulgakov's original text then delayed international distribution, though the film has since screened in Germany, Austria, Sweden and Italy. It stars August Diehl, Yevgeny Tsyganov, Yuliya Snigir and Claes Bang, with Lockshin directing from a script he co-wrote with Roman Kantor.