Unmasking Trump: The Movie That Dares to Dive Deep!

Ali Abbasi, the director of the film The Apprentice, which depicts the controversial history of U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, made the following statement.

According to an interview released on Thursday by distributor Noori Pictures, Abbasi said he participated in the project because he believed Americans lacked the courage to make a movie like this.

Abbasi explained that what sets him apart from directors working in the U.S. is his position as an outsider, which allows him to have an unbiased and non-partisan perspective. From this viewpoint, he could see Trump and Roy Cohn, Trump’s role model, who was famously known as a devil’s advocate, as colorful characters.

He added that at 28, Trump was similar to Obama, but he has become completely different. The drive young Trump had in the 1970s, his desire to become someone and create something, was fascinating. According to Abbasi, the complexity of Trump’s character makes the film interesting, though this complexity doesn’t imply innocence. The Trump in the film is different from the one running for president today, who often makes outlandish statements.

Abbasi further clarified that they did not make a supervillain movie. Interestingly, when listening to what Trump said at 28, he sounded quite similar to Obama. However, by his 50s, Trump had turned into someone who yells at traffic jams. Over decades of interacting with the media and society, he learned that this way of speaking was effective. Abbasi emphasized that in the 1990s, Trump was a completely different person from the one today regarding values, gestures, and even appearance. The film explores what shaped Trump into the person he is today.

Abbasi, originally from Iran, won the Un Certain Regard award at the 71st Cannes Film Festival for his fantasy romance, “Border.” His previous film, “Holy Spider,” tells the story of an ordinary father and serial killer who murdered 16 women in Iran’s largest religious city, driven by his own sense of justice. In 2020, director Bong Joon-ho mentioned Abbasi as one of the 20 next-generation masters to watch in an interview with the British Film Institute’s magazine Sight & Sound.

The Apprentice is a controversial film that traces Donald Trump’s rise from the son of a New York real estate mogul to a global real estate tycoon and president. It also delves into his relationship with Roy Cohn, the notorious lawyer who called Trump Donny Boy. The film portrays their relationship, from their first meeting to Cohn’s final days, in a documentary-like, straightforward style. The film is set for release on October 23.