Out of Competition
North American Premiere


THE DEVIL IN MOSCOW
DIABEL W MOSKWIE



Country of production: UK, Poland
Year: 1991
Language: Russian
Mins: 55

Director: Andrzej Fidyk
Cinematography:
Editing: Nigel Williams, Jola Kreczmanska
Producer: Andrzej Fidyk
Sound: Stanislaw Kolenda
Production company: Telewizja Polska
Source:
Andrzej Fidyk
POLAND
andrzej.fidyk@waw.tvp.pl


The Devil comes to Moscow, attended by a motley crew including a beautiful naked woman, a man in checked pants who wears broken glasses, and an enormous talking cat who likes to play chess. Such is the premise of THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, arguably the greatest literary work to emerge from the Soviet Union. A full-fledged inheritor of the tradition of THE INFERNO, PARADISE LOST, and FAUST, THE MASTER AND MARGARITA is a cosmic, often comic, political, religious, semi-autobiographical tome, which was the life work of writer Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1940).

THE DEVIL IN MOSCOW, directed by this year's jury member Andrzej Fidyk, sketches in many of the details from Bulgakov's life. Fidyk meets with many of the great students of the book and its writer, visits Bulgakov's apartment and the graffiti soaked staircase leading to it, and explores some of the many parallels between the writer and his book's fascinating "Master." Among these is a parallel comparing the Master and the Devil with Bulgakov and Josef Stalin.

THE DEVIL IN MOSCOW also audaciously enacts one of the book's most audacious moments: Satan's Grand Ball, with Russia's leading witch doctor performing the role of Satan himself.

Andrzej Fidyk has written and directed over 40 documentaries for Polish and British television. Since 1996, he has been head of the Department of Documentaries in Program One of Telewizja Polska (Polish Television) S.A. Mr. Fidyk has received numerous awards at festivals around the world including Golden Spire 1999 in San Francisco and Grand Prix 1989 in Leipzig. He is on the 2004 CIDF jury.

filmography as director
REED DANCE (2000)
EAST OF EASTENDERS (1997)
CARNAL. THE BIGGEST PARTY IN THE WORLD (1995)
THE RUSSIAN STRIPTEASE (1994)
THE POSTCARD FROM JAPAN (1994)
STASZEK'S DREAM IN TEHERAN (1993)
THE PARADE (1989, screened in this festival in 2003)


Director Andrzej Fidyk in person!

Sunday 04-Apr-2004 4:45 PM Gallery Theatre
Screening with MOSCOW CENTRAL

Saturday 17-Apr-2004 9:00 PM Gallery Theatre screening with MOSCOW CENTRAL