Iranian Director's Film About Donald Trump's Life Causes Controversy at Cannes Festival

Donald Trump's campaign team issued a statement calling the film "The Apprentice," directed by Iranian-born Ali Abbasi, "garbage" just hours after its premiere at the Cannes Festival, threatening to sue its creators for what they termed as "lies." The film depicts a period in Donald Trump's life during the 1970s when he became a powerful figure in the real estate and construction industry. Some scenes in the film are described as controversial, including a scene depicting Donald Trump sexually assaulting his ex-wife Ivana. Ivana had mentioned this in her 1989 divorce statement but later clarified that she did not mean actual sexual assault but felt that Trump had violated her. She stated in 2005 that they had three children together and still cared for each other. Ivana Trump passed away in 2022. A Q&A session for "The Apprentice" was held on Tuesday. Steven Chung, a spokesperson for Trump's campaign, stated in a release on Tuesday that the Trump team would sue those who "pretend to be filmmakers" for addressing the blatant lies. Chung referred to the film's content as "pure fictional garbage" related to lies that had been raised years ago. Previously, the film magazine "Variety" reported that Dan Snyder, an American billionaire and investor in "The Apprentice," became furious after viewing scenes from the film, but the film's investors could not prevent its release due to copyright issues. In the film, Sebastian Stan plays young Donald Trump, with his connections to Roy Cohn, a ruthless lawyer in New York played by Jeremy Strong, forming the film's main narrative. Both actors have been praised by critics for their performances. "The Apprentice" claims to be inspired by real events and portrays Trump's relationship with Cohn as a Faustian deal that led to Trump's emergence as a businessman and later as a politician. At the beginning of the film, Trump is depicted as a naive individual in real estate who becomes an expert in business after meeting Cohn. Ali Abbasi, whose previous film "Holy Spider" was inspired by the serial killings of Saeed Hanaei in Mashhad in the late 1990s, stated that it is time to make films political again. The director defended the depiction of Trump's assault on his first wife, stating that this incident is "very well-known" and explains the character of the former president. In response to the question of why this scene was included in the film, Abbasi said, "The film's theme is how he (Donald Trump) gradually distanced himself from all human relationships that defined his character and, in a way, his human conscience. His relationship with Ivana is very important in this regard. Ivana was someone very close to him." "The Apprentice" also reveals several other unpleasant aspects of Trump's life, including erectile dysfunction, liposuction surgery, and hair transplants. Abbasi also stated in an interview with AFP that Trump’s legal team should watch the film before filing a lawsuit. He believes it is not necessarily a film that Trump would dislike and thinks it would surprise him. Regarding the threat of a lawsuit from Trump's team, he humorously remarked, "Everyone talks about Donald Trump's lawsuits, but no one mentions the success rate of these lawsuits." He added, "Soon an occasion will come that will be great publicity for our film," referring to the upcoming U.S. presidential elections in November, where Trump will once again face Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate. Abbasi mentioned that "The Apprentice" is likely to be released around the time of the second debate between the two candidates in September in the U.S. The screenplay for "The Apprentice" was written by Gabriel Sherman, a journalist whose reports on the New York real estate market were published in the British weekly Observer and who frequently interviewed Donald Trump. He told AFP that Hollywood studio executives prevented the film's production in the U.S., and it was ultimately made with funding from government entities in Canada, Ireland, and Denmark. He added, "We could not make it in America. Hollywood does not want to shake certain aspects of the ruling system in many respects."