RUSSIA: They call it the "Curse Of Bulgakov": every attempt to film a version of the Russian novelist's masterpiece The Master And Margarita has ended in failure - and this week, in Moscow, the curse has struck again.
Determined to break the jinx, state TV station Rossiya threw £3 million at a lavish 10-part production, to be staged each night over Christmas.
Vast advertising hoardings prepared the capital for an extravaganza, with state-of-the-art animation techniques used to bring to life the book that pioneered magical realism. A third of Moscow settled down to watch the first episode - and gave it the thumbs down.
"We say it is 'nikakoi' - very plain and uninteresting," says Elena Rodina of Moscow's leading news magazine Ogoniok. "It had enormous publicity, lots of advertisement on TV and so on, and now it seems a disappointment."
The Master and Margarita has cast its awkward spell over this city since Mikhail Bulgakov wrote it in 1938. The book tells of the devil coming to Soviet Moscow in the 1930s disguised as a professor, Woland, and weaving chaos over an unsuspecting public.
Threaded into a book heavy in political satire on Soviet life is the story of how the beautiful Margarita persuades Woland to make a spell to free her lover, the Master, from prison.
Bulgakov died in the final stages of editing it in 1940, and though his wife finished the job, the Communist authorities did not allow publication until 1966.
When finally released, the book became an instant classic, reaching into the minds of young Russians with its mix of politics and mysticism.
A film was made of the book 10 years ago but mysteriously was never shown. Five years ago film-makers tried again, only to run into copyright problems.
Polish and Yugoslav directors also tried their hand, but both stumbled because the animation techniques needed to bring the magical sequences to life had not been developed.
Bulgakov remains a high-profile figure. While millions still read his books, Devil worshippers are terrorising residents of the apartment building where the writer lived and based some of the action, spraying racist slogans and swastikas on windows and hallways.
Last year, excited by the possibilities of the animation techniques used to bring Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to life, veteran director Vladimir Bortko began work on this TV series.
The production arrived with Russian film-making enjoying a golden moment. The grim poverty of most ordinary people has been evoked in the prize-winning movie Four, while the angst generated by Chechnya has been tapped into for the blockbuster Company Nine.
But The Master and Margarita is a flop. Bortko, like all directors bringing a classic to the screen, faced the dilemma of adding new elements and being criticised by the purists or sticking to the plot and being labelled dull. He chose the latter and has paid the price.
The message for future directors wanting to try their hand may be simple - steer clear of the curse.