The Apprentice

The Apprentice follows young Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan) as he rises as a real estate magnate under mentor Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) in a world of corruption, power and deceit in 1970s and 1980s America.

Before he became the person we know today, Trump was an awkward man with an inferiority complex, ruled by his domineering father. The Apprentice begins in 1973, when Donald is 27 years old in the run-down New York of the 1970s. It is during this period that Trump takes his first steps into the fast-paced world of business and builds the foundation for his business empire under the tutelage of his mentor, the influential and shrewd lawyer Roy Cohn. Cohn, who has no scruples, teaches him the dirty tricks he needs to become the real estate king of the city.

The biographical drama, partly interspersed with archive footage of New York, changes style and tone halfway through: first the somewhat grainy film footage in which the seventies are captured, later the more video-like portrayal of the eighties. "Like a shitty TV movie," according to the Swedish-Iranian director Ali Abbasi, who previously made Holy Spider and Gräns. More than a portrait of Trump, he hoped to make a portrait of the New York world in which Trump could become great; a mix of real estate millionaires, politicians, mafia types and celebrities.

Trump's political advisor Steven Cheung immediately responded after the premiere in Cannes with a statement full of curses: "We will file a lawsuit against these so-called filmmakers. This is pure fiction full of sensational lies that have long been debunked. Yet another attempt by the Hollywood elites to influence the election. Malicious gossip that does not even deserve a place in the bargain bin for direct-to-DVD films of a soon-to-close cheap movie store. This belongs in the incinerator." So far, no lawsuit has been filed...