“The Apprentice” premieres at the Cannes Film Festival to acclaim and controversy

CNN
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“The Apprentice,” a new film about former President Donald Trump’s real estate dealings in 1980s New York, received a standing ovation at its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and was criticized by his campaign team.

The film about the presumptive Republican nominee comes five months before the presidential election.

According to an official synopsis, the film, starring Sebastian Stan as a young Trump, is an “exploration of power and ambition in a world of corruption and deception.”

“Succession” star Jeremy Strong plays Roy Cohn, the lawyer and fixer Trump considered a mentor early in his career.

“It is a mentor-protégé story that traces the origins of an American dynasty. “Filled with larger-than-life characters, it reveals the moral and human cost of a culture defined by winners and losers,” the synopsis reads.

“The Apprentice,” which despite its title is not a reference to the reality competition series in which Trump starred, includes a note that some parts of the story are slightly fictionalized. It was written by biographer and political journalist Gabriel Sherman and directed by Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi.

“In times of turmoil you tend to look inward, to bury your head deep in the sand, to look within and hope for the best, hope that the storm will pass,” Abassi told the audience at the The film premieres on Monday, according to footage published online.

“But the storm,” Abassi continued, “is not going away. In fact, the storm is coming. The worst times are yet to come.”

Abassi continued that he decided to make a film “about the world” through a story about Trump because “there is no nice metaphorical way to deal with the growing wave of fascism.”

“There is only the chaotic way, there is only the banal way. “There is only one way to deal with this wave on its own territory and on its own level,” he said. “It won’t be pretty, but I think the problem with the world is that the good people have been silent for too long.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film includes a depiction of Trump's relationship with his first wife Ivana and their divorce. A scene in which the former president underwent liposuction drew an audible gasp from the crowd, the publication reported.

“We will be filing a lawsuit to counter the patently false claims made by these pseudo-filmmakers. “This garbage is pure fiction that sensationalizes long-debunked lies,” Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said in a statement to CNN. “This 'film' is pure malicious slander, should not see the light of day, and does not even deserve a place in the direct-to-DVD section of a bargain bin at a soon-to-close discount movie store. It belongs in a dumpster fire.”

Maria Bakalova plays Ivana Trump, who died in 2022. Martin Donovan, Catherine McNally and Charlie Carrick, among others, round out the cast.

A release date for the film has yet to be announced. According to IMDb, The Apprentice does not yet have a U.S.-based distributor.