CANNES, France – As Donald Trump’s secret trial entered its sixth week in New York, an origin story of the Republican presidential candidate debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday, revealing a searing portrait of the former president in the 1980s.
“The Apprentice,” directed by Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, stars Sebastian Stan as Trump. The film’s central relationship is between Trump and Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), the defense lawyer who was chief counsel in the Senate investigations of Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s.
Cohn is portrayed as a longtime mentor to Trump, training him in the ruthlessness of New York City politics and business. Early on, Cohn helped the Trump Organization when it was being sued by the federal government for racial discrimination in housing.
“The Apprentice,” labeled as inspired by true events, portrays Trump’s relationship with Cohn as a Faustian bargain that guided his rise as a businessman and, later, as a politician. Stan’s Trump is initially a more naïve real estate developer, soon transformed by Cohn’s education.
The film notably contains a scene that shows Trump raping his wife, Ivana Trump (played by Maria Bakalova). In Ivana Trump’s 1990 divorce deposition, she claimed that Trump raped her. Trump denied the accusation and Ivana Trump later said that she did not mean it literally, but rather that she felt violated.
This scene and others make “The Apprentice” a potentially explosive drama in the cinema amid the US presidential elections. The film is on sale at Cannes, so it doesn’t have a release date yet.
Variety on Monday reported alleged behind-the-scenes drama surrounding “The Apprentice.” Citing anonymous sources, the trade publication reported that billionaire Dan Snyder, former owner of the Washington Commanders and investor in “The Apprentice,” pressured the filmmakers to edit the film because of its portrayal of Trump. Snyder has previously donated to Trump’s presidential campaign.
Neither the film’s representatives nor Snyder could immediately be reached for comment.
In the film’s press notes, Abbasi, whose previous film “Holy Spider” portrays a journalist investigating a serial killer in Iran, said he did not intend to make “a History Channel episode.”
“This is not a Donald Trump biopic,” Abbasi said. “We’re not interested in every detail of his life going from A to Z. We’re interested in telling a very specific story through his relationship with Roy and Roy’s relationship with him.”
Regardless of its political impact, “The Apprentice” will likely be discussed a lot as a potential awards contender. The film, shot with a gritty ’80s aesthetic, returns Strong to a New York landscape of money and power, one year after the conclusion of HBO’s “Succession.” Strong, who is currently appearing on Broadway in “An Enemy of the People,” did not attend the Cannes premiere on Monday.
“The Apprentice” is in competition at Cannes, which makes it eligible for the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. In Cannes, filmmakers and casts hold press conferences the day after the film premieres. The press conference for “The Apprentice” will be Tuesday.
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