(1972; Il maestro e Margherita, Italian from Serbo-Croatian) Set in 1920s Moscow and adapted by the Yugoslavian dissident director/writer Aleksandar Petrovic, critiquing the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, Russian author Mikhail A. Bulgakov's magnificent sprawling novel has been cinematically compressed (the entire portion of Margaret's becoming a witch and attending the Ball of One Hundred Kings has been eliminated) and condensed (Nikolai has completely taken over the roles of both the Master and the poet Ivan Bezdomny) into a cohesive 98 minutes of politico-fantasy from a screenplay by Amedeo Pagani and Roman Wingarten with musical score by Ennio Morricone.

As Woland (Alain Cuny) and Azazelo (Pavle Vujisic) watch from the balcony, comparing what they're seeing with what they'd witnessed in person nearly two millennia earlier, the rehearsal of a play by Nikolai Maksudov (Ugo Tognazzi) during a scene with Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ is halted; critical of the script (differing completely from the Gospels), Berlioz (Fabijan Sovagovic), president of the Union of Proletarian Writers, also declares postponement of the play's opening.

When Berlioz urges Nikolai to withdraw his drama and accept a vacation to the earthly paradise of Yalta, Nikolai asks: "What are you afraid of?" The truth: issuing from the mouth of the character of Jesus come the words: "All power is violence." Having believed that "Revolution meant freedom," Nikolai begins to realize that there is "no justice, only law."

Having fallen in love (like being stabbed) at first sight of blonde Margaret Nikolaievna (Mimsy Farmer), he takes her to his apartment, where he has written his entire composition on the walls and ceiling, and tells her of his dream of Satan, an inspiration to next write a novel of the devil in Moscow. She tells him that she's married to a policeman: "We didn't meet by chance."

After Oscar Danilovic (Zlatko Madunic), the writers' union's secretary, informs Nikolai of the consequences for his refusal to withdraw his play, Oscar finds himself transported naked to Yalta in the rain; soon after he's arrested as a foreign spy.

In the dining hall during the meeting of the writers' union, Nikolai (again expressing his view that socialism requires freedom) is castigated by several envious members, including the critic Lavrovic, who has written a review condemning the play without having seen it. As the playwright attempts to reason with Berlioz, who complains to Nikolai that God doesn't exist, Woland appears, introducing himself as a professor of black magic, and offers counterarguments to Berlioz's atheism before foretelling of his imminent death.

Nikolai enters the writers' dining hall to announce Berlioz's death by beheading, the subsequent disappearance of the president's pate, and Satan's involvement. Shortly afterward he finds himself a patient diagnosed with schizophrenia in an insane asylum.

In her search for Nikolai, Margaret finds the writer Bobov ensconced in the master's apartment; at Berlioz's funeral, she's approached by Woland, who quotes from Nikolai's writing. Worland's snarling black cat lurks through the scenes. When Lavrovic arrives, expecting to find Bobov at Nikolai's former abode to give back the manuscript of Nikolai's play, he's confronted by Woland with Azazelo and Koroviev (Bata Zivojinovic), who inform the critic of his having developed cancer of the liver for dishonest criticism.

An order from the ministry commands the theater to stage Nikolai's play, to be preceded by Prof Woland's magic show. Members of the audience, treated to a fantastic feat of free cash and fashionable clothing cascading from the ceiling, discover as they're leaving the theater, they've been diabolically duped.

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