Explosive Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice hits Cannes Film Festival

CANNES – Rape, erectile dysfunction, baldness and betrayal: an explosive new biopic of Donald Trump shown at Cannes on May 20 paints an unflinching but nuanced portrait of the former US president, even as he runs again for The White House.

The Apprentice traces Trump’s origin story as an ambitious young property developer in 1970s and 1980s New York.

Sebastian Stan, best known from Marvel superhero films, stars as Trump, while Jeremy Strong of Succession (2018 to 2023) fame plays his ruthless mentor and attorney Roy Cohn – and both received glowing reviews from Cannes critics.

Initially presenting an almost sympathetic portrayal of a headstrong but naive social climber, the film charts Trump’s decency being eroded as he learns the dark arts of dealmaking and tastes power.

Its premiere at the French film festival on May 20 came while Trump is on trial in Manhattan for a tawdry scandal involving a porn star.

The movie begins with a disclaimer that many of its events are fictionalised, and director Ali Abbasi puts that licence to full use, imagining brutal events taking place behind closed doors.

In one harrowing scene, Trump is seen raping his first wife Ivana.

During divorce proceedings, Ivana accused Trump of raping her, though she later rescinded the allegation. She died in 2022.

The movie appears to have infuriated Trump’s team.

His campaign communications director Steven Cheung said a lawsuit would be filed “to address the blatantly false assertions from these pretend film-makers”.

“This garbage is pure fiction which sensationalises lies that have long been debunked,” added Mr Cheung in a statement to AFP.

Speaking to American publication Vanity Fair before the premiere, Abbasi, 43, had said the aim was “to do a punk rock version of a historical movie... (not) get too anal about details and what’s right and what’s wrong”.

Iranian-born director Abbasi is a Cannes regular. His serial-killer fable Holy Spider played in competition in 2022.

The Apprentice begins with a young Trump, obsessed with joining the city’s elite and dreaming of his own luxury hotel, even as he spends his days personally collecting rent from his father’s tenants.

His life is transformed by an encounter with Cohn, whose harshly nihilistic lessons such as “admit nothing, deny everything” and “attack, attack, attack” will become Trump’s manifesto later in life.

Cohn made his name as a fearsome lawyer by hunting communists for Senator Joseph McCarthy, and sending Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair.

Far from a simple hatchet job, The Times of London even argued it would “make you feel sympathy for Trump”, while American entertainment portal Variety said it was “sharp and scathing, but it avoids cheap shots”.

The screenplay was written by Gabriel Sherman, a journalist who covered real estate for the New York Observer in the 2000s and regularly spoke with Trump.

The film is one of 22 in competition for the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. A jury headed by Barbie (2023) director Greta Gerwig will unveil its winner on May 25.

Asked whether it was possible for an American woman to be objective in judging a film about Trump, Gerwig said she would come to the movie with “an open mind and an open heart, and willing to be surprised”.

Also at Cannes on May 20 was The Shrouds, the latest from David Cronenberg, the Canadian director of classics like Videodrome (1983), The Fly (1986) and Crash (1996).

The story of a widowed businessman (Vincent Cassel) who invents a machine to monitor the dead in their graves was partly inspired by the 2017 death of Cronenberg’s wife of 43 years.

For now, the front runner is considered to be Emilia Perez, a highly audacious musical about a Mexican narco boss undergoing a sex change.

It has earned acclaim for stars Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and trans actor Karla Sofia Gascon in the title role, as well as its French director Jacques Audiard, who already has a Palme d’Or under his belt. AFP