Donald Trump’s campaign team has threatened to sue the producers of the film The Apprentice over director Ali Abassi’s portrayal of the former US president’s beginnings as a real estate magnate in the 1970s. “It is garbage, pure fiction made of sensational falsehoods debunked a long time ago,” they stressed in a statement about a story that shows Trump’s abusive behavior in both his professional and personal life and that does not skimp on controversial scenes.
Especially the one that shows how his first wife Ivana gives him a book about the female G-spot and, after telling her that he no longer finds her attractive, he throws her on the ground and rapes her while yelling at her: “Is this your G-spot?” ?”, “I’ve found it?”. Ivana, played by actress Maria Bakalova, contributed to her husband’s empire and she died in 2022 of heart failure.
It was clear that a film about Trump that aspires to the Palme d’Or was not going to go unnoticed in the middle of an election year and again with the Republican as a candidate for the White House. “You should see it before you start reporting us. I am willing to meet with him, show it to him and talk about it. “I think it would surprise you,” said the Danish-nationalized Iranian director at a press conference today, who was already in competition at the Cannes festival two years ago with Holy Spider, a thriller in which he followed a serial killer of prostitutes in Iran. .
Although the film addresses the figure of Trump, Abbasi does not believe that the film is actually about the politician, who is facing a criminal trial for irregular payments to a porn actress. ”It is a film about the system and the way in which the system works and has been built,” he claimed. Based on a script by writer and journalist Gabriel Sherman, the goal of the story is to capture what really happened, although some names have been altered to do so.
The Apprentice covers the formative years of a young Trump, played magnificently by Sebastian Stan, who wanted to revitalize the decadent New York of 1973. At 27 years old and with his characteristic hair, he works as a vice president in his father’s real estate company and has managed to be the youngest member to join Le Club, an exclusive restaurant and nightclub where all the powerful people of the city meet. There he will meet Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a lawyer with a dubious reputation and influential friends who will help him get rid of the tax payments that are suffocating the family business and will become his mentor.
A shark that sees in Trump a guy with ambition, although somewhat shy and innocent at first, in whom he will place his trust and three golden rules that his disciple will end up executing in a short time without blinking “Attack, attack and attack; admit nothing, deny everything; And no matter what happens, claim victory and never admit defeat.” The film, received with mixed reviews for its television style and for not reaching Trump’s soul, is a highly entertaining exercise and offers a previously unknown vision of the magnate, who was not always a despot. Everything changed thanks to his meeting with Cohn and the excessive success that made him become the absolute owner of New York, crowned with his obsession with building Trump Tower.
It also reflects the tense relationships with his father and his older brother, rejected by his father for being an air pilot and ignored by Trump when he falls into depression. As with her friendship with Cohn, she was condemned to betrayal once on high. In some ways she looks like a kind of The Godfather in real estate version, with Donald as Michael Corleone and his brother as the fragile Freddo.
Both Stan and Strong are incredible in their respective roles, although the level of performance of the protagonist of the Succession series stands out greatly and points to an Oscar nomination. His face and look are very reminiscent of Al Pacino. At its gala screening last night, The Apprentice was greeted with an eight-minute ovation, led by the applause of an enthusiastic Cate Blanchett. “The storm is coming, it’s time to make political films again,” Abbasi noted.