Russia's Orthodox church has reacted with dismay to a film of the seminal novel The Master and Margarita, saying it offers a version of the Gospel that is "nothing but negative" and fearing it will offend or confuse many believers.
Last month a Russian director began filming a version of the novel Mikhail Bulgakov wrote in the 1930s. The result, the first Russian version of the widely praised masterpiece, will be shown nationwide on Russian TV as a 10-part series.
The novel is a satire on the Revolution, and in its form pioneered the "magic realism" genre. It contains passages in which a character called Professor Woland - a variant of the name of Satan, who appears in Goethe's Faust, and a thinly disguised pseudonym for the devil - narrates the life, trial and crucifixion of character called Yeshua - a pseudonym for Jesus Christ.
A senior Orthodox official told the Guardian that cinema was "not an adequate means of interpreting the Gospel" - icons were more appropriate. Father Mikhail Dudko, head of the secretariat for church and society, said: "We Christians know four gospels, and in Bulgakov's book we see a kind of fifth: a gospel narrated by Satan, [who is called] Woland in the book. And the interpretation is in Satan's favour. Our reaction to such an interpretation can be nothing but negative."
In the novel Woland is portrayed as a superior intellect to Yeshua, and "the real figure of Christ is substituted by some helpless philosopher".
At one point, Yeshua remarks that the apostles following him keep making errors in their notes, suggesting that the gospels are inaccurate. This is thought to be a reference to the criticism which the Russian social democrats, launched at the Bolsheviks, that they were misinterpreting Marx and launching a false revolution.
Father Dudko said that if someone "dared to shoot a film, you have to do it very cautiously in order not to offend believers and to avoid the indignation and protest of ordinary people". Bulgakov was a "genius", son of a theology professor, and could not himself be considered "anti-Christian". But the priest was "afraid the ideas of the novel will be lost or made primitive" and "the text of Bulgakov is full of points which contemporary people, especially non-believers, will find very difficult to understand".
The director is Vladimir Bortko, whose film of another Bulgakov novel, Heart of the Dog, received critical acclaim. He dismissed the idea that the film would be a "fifth gospel".
"I don't agree that the story is narrated on behalf of Satan. It is narrated on behalf of Bulgakov, and we keep close to his text.
"As Bulgakov did, we speak about Yeshua, not Jesus; about Ershalaim, not Jerusalem; and so on. The film has nothing to do with a religious subject."
Some 1.5 million people were executed by crucifixion, and he could not "see any basis to associate the crucifixion of Yeshua with Christ's passion".
Yet Father Dudko said: "I can't imagine how one can tell the story of Jesus Christ trying to keep away from the religious points, even if you make that a priority."
The newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda reported that the film was being shot in secret in Crimea, with local policemen as soldiers dressed in Roman uniforms from an American remake of Spartacus in nearby Bulgaria. The paper also reported that computer images of Jerusalem were being used in the film.