HAUNTED BY THE SKYLINE: STALINIST ARCHITECTURE IN THE MASTER AND MARGARITA (2024)

Abstract

This paper explores how The Master and Margarita (2024), a film directed by Mikhail Lokshin, reimagines Stalinist Moscow through its architecture. The film illustrates both realized and unrealized Soviet structures by using them to reflect on the persistence of totalitarian ideology in modern Russian culture. Through visual analysis and theoretical perspectives from Henri Lefebvre, Michel Foucault, and Maurice Halbwachs, the paper argues that architecture in the film is not just background. It acts as a political force. Key Stalinist projects in the film, including the Seven Sisters, the Palace of the Soviets, and the Narkomtiazhprom, appear as tools of surveillance, memory, and control. Even buildings that were never built still shape how Moscow is imagined on screen. The film’s portrayal of these spaces challenges official historical narratives and provokes discomfort, especially in its final scene, where Stalin’s Moscow burns. By focusing on space, memory, and power, this paper shows that the city itself becomes an ideological character. Stalinist architecture in the film is not a frozen relic. It is alive, symbolic, and haunting.