Trump says he will sue biography that shows him raping his wife Ivana, director Ali Abbasi responds

Cannes, France:

The director of an explosive biopic that shows Donald Trump raping his wife defended the controversial scene on Tuesday, telling AFP the alleged incident was “well-known” and shed light on the ex-president’s character.

“The Apprentice,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, traces Trump’s beginnings as an ambitious young real estate developer in New York in the 1970s and 1980s.

Donald Trump’s team has vowed to sue the producers, calling it “garbage” and “pure malicious slander.”

The most controversial scene is the one in which Trump rapes his first wife Ivana after she denounces him for being fat and bald.

“This particular thing is very well known. Ivana Trump said this incident under oath and under oath,” said filmmaker Ali Abbasi.

In real life, Ivana made the accusation during the divorce proceedings but later recanted it. She died in 2022.

When asked why the scene was included, Abbasi said the film was about “how (Trump) distances himself, point by point, piece by piece, from the human relationships that define him and that keep him in check as a human being.” .”

“Of course the relationship with Ivana is super important. Ivana is very close to him.”

Sebastian Stan, best known for the Marvel superhero films, plays Trump, while Jeremy Strong, best known for “Succession,” plays his ruthless mentor and lawyer Roy Cohn.

Both received rave reviews from critics.

Other unflattering scenes show Trump suffering from erectile dysfunction and undergoing liposuction and surgery for hair loss.

But the film as a whole offers a nuanced portrayal, depicting an ambitious but naive social climber whose decency fades as he learns the dark arts of business and power.

“A lot of the behavior and personality is much more understandable than we would like to admit,” Stan told AFP.

Abbasi suggested that “Donald’s team should wait until they see the film before they start suing us.”

“I don’t necessarily think this is a movie he wouldn’t like… I think he would be surprised,” he said.

“Garbage”: Trump team

Steven Cheung, Trump’s campaign communications director, said in a statement that a lawsuit would be filed “to address the patently false claims made by these pseudo-filmmakers.”

“This garbage is pure fiction and dramatizes lies that have long been refuted,” Cheung added.

“The Apprentice” premiered while Trump is on trial in Manhattan over a tawdry porn star scandal.

It is just a few months before the US presidential election, in which Trump is expected to face Joe Biden.

“We have a promotional event coming up called ‘US Elections’ that will help us with the film,” Abbasi joked, hinting that the film could be released around the second Biden-Trump debate in September.

“The Apprentice” begins with a young Trump obsessed with joining the city’s elite and dreaming of owning his own luxury hotel.

His life is changed by an encounter with Cohn, whose nihilistic teachings such as “admit nothing, deny everything” and “attack, attack, attack” would become Trump’s manifesto later in life.

Cohn made a name for himself as a feared lawyer by hunting down communists on behalf of Senator Joseph McCarthy and sending Soviet spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg to the electric chair.

The script was written by Gabriel Sherman, a journalist who covered real estate for the New York Observer and spoke regularly with Trump.

He said the film was blocked by senior Hollywood executives and ultimately financed by the Canadian, Irish and Danish governments.

“We couldn’t do it in the American system,” Sherman said.

“In many ways, Hollywood doesn’t want to shake up certain things.”

The film is one of 22 in competition for the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or.

A jury led by “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig will announce its winner on Saturday.

Asked whether it was possible for an American to objectively assess a film about Trump, Gerwig said she would come to the film with an “open mind and an open heart.”

The Neapolitan love letter “Parthenope” by Italian director Paolo Sorrentino and the bizarre French metadrama “Marcello Mio” by Christophe Honore premiered in Cannes on Tuesday.

US arthouse favourite Sean Baker’s “Anora”, a modern-day Cinderella story about a stripper, was hailed by Variety as the festival’s “uncut gem”.

And French athletes carried the Olympic torch down the red carpet as it made its way to the capital for the Summer Olympics.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)