Shows him as a monster

Film causes trouble: Trump wants to file a lawsuit

According to media reports, Donald Trump wants to take action against the film "The Apprentice", which portrays him in a negative light. "We will be filing a lawsuit to take action against the blatantly false claims made by these alleged filmmakers," Trump spokesman Steven Cheung told the industry magazine "Variety". 

"Everyone is talking about the fact that he sued a lot of people, but they're not talking about his success rate," the film's director, Ali Abbasi, said in Cannes on Tuesday. It is about his film "The Apprentice", which premiered at the film festival.

The work is a film biography of Trump in his younger years and is set in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was expanding his real estate business in New York.

Rape of Ivana on view
The film portrays Trump as a kind of ruthless monster. In one scene, he rapes his former wife Ivana Trump as a character in "The Apprentice"; in another, he can be seen having liposuction performed.

Maria Bakalova, director Ali Abbasi and lead actor Sebastian Stan at the premiere of "The Apprentice" in Cannes(Bild: APA/Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Romanian-American actor Sebastian Stan plays the 77-year-old actor.

Documentary "Stormy" also a topic in Cannes
Trump is running again as a candidate in the presidential election in November and is currently on trial for a hush-money case. The trial concerns the accusation by the public prosecutor's office that Trump wanted to improve his prospects of success in the 2016 presidential election by paying 130,000 dollars to porn film maker Stormy Daniels and then misrepresented the flow of money.

A documentary about Daniels entitled "Stormy" is also the subject of discussion in Cannes. The work, in which Daniels is involved, is being marketed at the "Marché de Film", the business equivalent of the film festival. According to media reports, the documentary depicts Daniels' perspective on how she dealt with the aftermath of her alleged sexual relationship with Trump.

Trump portrayal based on real events
"The Apprentice" also tells the story of Trump's friendship with lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). In the film, it is portrayed as if Cohn had been instrumental in helping Trump to launch his career - but Trump later dropped him when he was no longer useful to him. Cohn died of Aids in 1986. In the film, Trump also distances himself from Cohn in light of this illness.

Ali Abbasi with his "The Apprentice" leading actresses Martin Donovan, Maria Bakalova, and Sebastian Stan in Cannes(Bild: APA/AFP/Sameer Al-Doumy)

Screenwriter Gabriel Sherman said in Cannes that he had based his portrayal of Trump on real events. Many producers did not think much of the film idea. In his opinion, it would not have been possible to realize the film in Hollywood. "The Apprentice" is a Canadian, Danish and Irish co-production.

"Not a movie about Trump, a movie about a system"
Abbasi added: "In recent years, my optimism for the world has faded." It would be more comfortable to hope that times would get better again, he said. It feels better to say: "These wars and political debates and so on come and go, and the corrupt politicians come and go, and they don't affect me - but they affect us."

At the same time, he emphasized, "This really isn't a movie about Donald Trump. This is a movie about a system. It's a movie about a system and the way the system works and the way the system is set up and how power manifests itself in that system."