“The film about the most scandalous American politician of our time will be released in cinemas in Ukraine on October 17, 2024.”, — write: www.unian.ua
The film about the most scandalous American politician of our time will be released in cinemas in Ukraine on October 17, 2024.
A frame from the film “The Apprentice. Trump’s Story” / photo by Adastra Cinema”The story of the origin of a supervillain”, “the story of how Donald Trump lost the remnants of his soul”, “funny, rude, realistic” – this is how the Western press characterizes the scandalous biopic about the youth of the former US president, and now – again a candidate for office, Donald J. Trump. Despite the threats of Trump himself and his team to block the release of the film and to condemn all those involved, “The Apprentice” (The Apprentice) will be released in the United States from October 10, in Ukraine and many European countries – from October 17.The picture of the Scandinavian director of Iranian origin Ali Abbasi touches on the period of Trump’s formation as a popular figure in American economic and political life in the 1970s and 80s, his marriage to his first wife Ivana Trump – the mother of Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump. And most importantly, the film tells the version of events that created the image of a “cool” businessman around Trump, who was helped by the scandalous Republican lawyer and consultant Roy Cohn.
The film, written by political columnist Gabriel Sherman, was screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival for the first time, and stars Marvel star Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong from The Heirs and Maria Bakalova, who rose to fame in the second Borat.
UNIAN together with the company Adastra Cinema tells what you should know about this scandalous film before watching it.
What “The Apprentice. Trump’s Story” tells us about“Student” got its name for a reason. In the original, Abbasi’s picture is called “The Apprentice” (in translation – apprentice, journeyman, beginner) – just like the popular reality show, which in the 2000s brought Donald Trump to the screens of the NBC channel in the slot after the weekly broadcast of the mega-popular “Friends” “. In the era of the reality TV boom, the scandalous, loud Trump has become an ideal figure for high ratings. And if in the show Trump portrayed himself as a mentor for newcomers in business, then in life he himself was an “apprentice” not only for his father – businessman Frank Trump, but also for the controversial political figure of the last century – Roy Cohn.
“The Apprentice. Trump’s Story” starts with the events of 1973, when the “Trump Organization” faced serious legal troubles. Frank Trump was known to have views that bordered on racism, and stubbornly fought rumors that he had been arrested at a Ku Klux Klan rally in his youth. Whether it is true or not – it is difficult to say now, but it is known for sure that his organization was accused of oppressing the rights of the black population. Trump Sr. himself had a stable reputation as the “king of the slums”: the family’s main business was in Queens, not Manhattan, and they owned apartment buildings with cheap rent and not the best living conditions. In 1973, the prosecutor’s office, together with human rights defenders, filed a lawsuit against the Trumps when their investigation showed that they were denying housing to the vast majority of African-Americans, despite even perfect credit histories, the availability of work and the absence of criminal records.
The New York press was sure that the Trumps had a losing case on their hands and lawyers called for them to plead guilty and pay fines. Until Roy Cohn appeared on the scene – a lawyer with a very dubious reputation and even more dubious acquaintances.
A frame from the film “The Apprentice. Trump’s Story” / photo by Adastra Cinema”It is common knowledge that it was Donald Trump who hired Roy Cohn to save the family business. The father did not particularly believe in Donald and generally believed that his eldest son, Frank, should lead the business, but when he decided to become a pilot, the entire burden fell on Donald’s shoulders. And he made the right decision for himself, and the wrong one for all of us – he hired Roy Cohn options”, screenwriter Gabriel Sherman shares with the press.
Who is Roy Cohn? As the BBC writes, it was this scandalous lawyer who was the prototype of Burns’ lawyer in “The Simpsons”, the prototype of the villain in the cult “Angels in America”, and in 2019 two documentary projects were released about him – “Hooligan. Coward. Victim” and “Where my Roy Cohn?”. Esquire magazine called him “the evil Forrest Gump galloping across America.” Cohn persecuted imaginary and real communists, publicly disparaged homosexuals, being homosexual himself, represented the interests of the Italian mafia, the future billionaire and founder of Fox News Rupert Murdoch, the artist Andy Warhol and, of course, Donald Trump, who became his most personal and most successful “project” “.
“The entire background of the acquaintance and the scandalous lawsuit are only the first 15-20 minutes of the film. Next, it was important for us to show how Roy Cohn infects the young Trump with his dangerous pseudo-philosophy: always attack, never apologize, lie that you will not lose. It is important to show how it was Trump who started his business in Manhattan and how he got the attention of the press – from Cohn’s connections, lies and subsidies, which, in Trump’s opinion, should be received by big business, not ordinary people”, – continued the author of the script, – “It was also important to show how the “creator” lost control over his “creation” as a result.
The film also touches on the personal life of the young Trump: meeting his first wife Ivana, their unhappy marriage and his family, which had enough of its own scandalous pages.
“It was important for us to balance drama, comedy and satire. This whole story turned into a nightmare for America and the world, but the very nature of Trump is not only tragic, but also deeply satirical – the film turned out the same way. It is difficult to take Trump seriously, as long as he is involved is not gaining serious traction,” director Ali Abbasi shared with Variety at a press conference in Cannes.
The creators of the filmSherman wrote the script for the film in 2019, but no major studio wanted to take on the project: “You can scream all you want about how liberal and ‘pro-democracy’ Hollywood is, but nobody really wanted to take on the film. Nobody sent me edits to the script , but just politely declined. They can be understood in part, because basically all the big studios have other businesses, or they themselves are part of the conglomerates. After the Trumpists took revenge on Disney in Florida (the Republican governor actively sued the Disneyland park throughout 2023 in Florida) – no one wants a direct confrontation,” said the screenwriter of “The Apprentice”.
As a result, the project became an independent film, the financing of which was collected literally “from the world by thread”, because the shooting of the picture with the stars and the retro era in the frame always requires expenses.
“I am satisfied with the final result, and perhaps precisely because dozens of studio officials were not hovering over the film – it turned out to be whole and bold,” Sherman concluded.
The premiere of the film “The Apprentice. Trump’s Story” in Cannes 2024 / photo by Adastra CinemaInstead, finding a director for the project turned out to be much easier – the film was taken up by a favorite of critics and festivals, director Ali Abbasi, whose films are banned in his historical homeland, Iran, and the last film – “The Holy Spider Killer” was also released in Russia in 2022 year
“I don’t consider myself a “political director”, I tell stories, another issue is that authoritarian regimes may not like my stories – and this is beyond my power,” Abbasi commented on cases of censorship of his works.
The main role was taken by the star of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sebastian Stan: “I was amazed by the depth and, at the same time, the lightness of the script. It is one of the best scripts I have ever read. When I say that I approached the portrayal of Donald Trump with humanity, it is doesn’t mean I tried to find the good in him. It means I didn’t want to create a parody. It was my job to show Trump the man. A lot of my performance was provided by the script, our director, the great actors around him me, and of course, the masters of dialect, hair, make-up, wardrobe. We all created Donald Trump in “The Apprentice”, it’s a collective effort, “said the star of “I, Tony” in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
A frame from the film “The Apprentice. Trump’s Story” / photo by Adastra CinemaIn the role of Roy Cohn, both Abbasi and Sherman saw only Jeremy Strong, behind whose shoulders there is already more than one project about the political life of America: “The Heirs”, “The Trial of the Chicago Seven”, “The Demotion Game”, “Lincoln” and many others.
“It’s a privilege to play such vivid roles. Roy Cohn is both terrible and pathetic, and has had such an impact on the life of my country that it’s hard to appreciate. He died in ’86 and didn’t see what his actions led to, but we must not forget.” – believes Strong.
A frame from the film “The Apprentice. Trump’s Story” / photo by Adastra CinemaIvana Trump – the first wife of the 45th US president – was played by the Bulgarian actress Maria Bakalova, whose Hollywood career started just a few years ago with the parody comedy “Borat 2″, for which the aspiring actress received many awards and nominations, including a nomination for ” Oscar”. The Guardian called her performance and character key to the film: “It’s through Maria and Sebastian’s dynamic that the Trump man is best revealed. Much can be blamed on Roy Cohn, but not the failure of this love story. Bakalova is the perfect icing on this cake of madness.”
Trump’s empty threats and critics’ reactions to the filmDonald Trump, of course, did not watch the film, but he managed to call it a “piece of garbage” after it was reported that the film will contain a scene of Trump’s violence against Ivana. Convicted of assaulting another woman and embroiled in scandals surrounding payments to a porn star, the last thing Trump’s campaign needs is a movie of him raping his own wife. Until this moment, the politician’s team preferred to simply ignore “The Apprentice”, apparently so as not to create additional promotion for him. But after this story appeared in the press, Trump decided to threaten the team with legal action. Perhaps it will lead to some legal proceedings, but it is unlikely that it will lead to consequences for the creators. The New York Times emphasized that the film needs a disclaimer at the beginning that some events are dramatized – and it is at the beginning. In addition, the film protects the First Amendment to the US Constitution (in particular, regarding freedom of speech), although the risks definitely remain due to the unpredictability of Trump.
A frame from the film “The Apprentice. Trump’s Story” / photo by Adastra CinemaCritics were divided in their opinions, not so much because of the quality of the film itself, but because of the surrounding context. Jake Cole of Slant Magazine believes that it is too early for a biopic about Trump, and New York Magazine columnist Bilge Ebery noted that the film will not reveal anything new to the critical-thinking audience, while Trump supporters have long been a cult and they they will not look, or they will look, but they will not believe. Journalists from The Wrap argue with him in absentia, reminding that films are made not only for America, and almost no one abroad knows the name of Kohn or their relationship with Trump.
The film currently holds a score of 6.9 out of 10 on IMDb, while on Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 78% approval rating from critics with a “Certified Fresh” rating and an 86% approval rating from audiences. At the same time, on Metacritic, film experts rated it 64 out of 100 points, and the general audience – 6.4 out of 10 points, which in both cases corresponds to the characteristic of “generally positive reviews”.
You may also be interested in news:
- “Megalopolis”: interesting facts about the “film of a lifetime” by Francis Ford Coppola
- “Until the end of the world”: interesting facts about Viggo Mortensen’s new film
- “Substance”: interesting facts about the film that brought Demi Moore back to the big screen