Alexey Arestovych – Psychological training based on the analysis of the film The Master and Margarita

Film seminar on the film “The Master and Margarita” (2024) with Alexey Arestovich

Each of us believes that we lead a unique life, but in reality we move according to patterns long established by folklore, culture and history, imposed by society, family or our own fears.

It seems like our choices are unique, like each chapter is written by us. But if you step back and look from the outside, it becomes clear we’re trudging along paths paved by generations before us. It’s like being trapped in a vicious circle—you keep walking, repeating the same steps, but there’s no result.

Bulgakov understood this. And wrote a novel. Freedom? An illusion. Justice? A phantom.
Only the Personality is real, capable of transcending the bounds of a once-and-for-all plot.
Now consider: are you the author of your story or a character stuck within its chapters?
This question is uncomfortable. But it is vital.
What guides you—your personality or your concept? Who guides you—you or the program implanted in you since childhood?

We’re used to thinking of fairy tales as children’s games. However, if we look more closely, each of us finds both Woland and Pontius Pilate in our own lives.

Through the experience of analyzing the characters in “Skozkotherapy 1,” we explored their key moral and life guidelines. We answered the question: What are their immediate and long-term developmental goals?

But there’s a second part to a fairy tale. Besides characters, there are plots, or, as they’re called, scenarios. A plot is a vast pattern we don’t notice in our lives. It’s a cage we don’t see. We can disagree with it, fight it, scream—but we keep going in circles until we understand the main thing: the scenario doesn’t crumble from within.

Personality is the primary method for working with scripts. Going beyond the plot is the main theme of the film seminar on “The Master and Margarita,” which continues the “Fairytale Therapy 2” seminar.

We will look at how to work with the plot, learn to understand where and why we are stuck, and how to become stronger than ideologies.

What is the film about?

“The Master and Margarita” (2024) is a Russian fantasy drama film directed by Mikhail Lokshin, based on the novel of the same name by Mikhail Bulgakov.
📽 August Diehl as Woland, Yuliya Snigir as Margarita, and Yevgeny Tsyganov as the Master.
Moscow in the 1930s. The theater becomes a battleground between fear and freedom.
A writer rises to the top—and falls.
Margarita follows him.
Woland directs a performance no one will ever forget.

The film is just an excuse to look deeper and see how your script works.

At the film workshop, we’ll work with personal stories:
1. Analyze stories—who writes them in your life?
2. Engage in dialogue with the film—where in the story of the Master or Margarita does your own voice resonate?
3. Reality check—which story is playing out in you now, and how can you change it?

What does Woland teach?

Any power is violence against a person.
But violence isn’t always external. Within us, there are thousands of little dictators: fear, anxiety, laziness, the desire to be convenient. They write our script.
There is a way out. Personality is the way out. Woland destroys the script because Personality stands above all concepts.

“The Master and Margarita” is a textbook on liberation from internal tyrannies.
How to become free, inside and out? How to live—to believe or not to believe? Which worldview should we prefer? What drives us? What is more important—personality or concept?

If you feel like your life is going in circles, or that the script you’ve been living by is long overdue for a rewrite, this workshop is for you. We’ll show you the formula for engaging your personality and how it will rise above the script.

Come on in. The script has already begun—you just haven’t gotten into your role yet. The main thing is to not be afraid to look within and work with what’s there.