Scandinavian Film & TV: September 2024

For this month’s column, I’m looking at a film that is controversial even before it has been released. In November, Americans are going to the polls to elect the next US president. An election that has prompted many to argue that democracy is on the line due to the possibility that Donald Trump could become re-elected as US President.

While other films and documentaries have related to Trump over the years, none is quite like the one directed by Ali Abbasi, a Danish/Iranian film director. Abbasi’s feature film The Apprentice tells the story of a young Donald Trump as he tries to make his case as a ruthless real estate investor. Starring some of Hollywood’s top A-list actors such as Jeremy Strong, who has won accolades for his leading role in Succession, the film portrays Trump’s ruthless lawyer and mentor Roy Kohn with Trump himself played by Sebastian Stan. When the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on 20 May, it received an 11-minute standing ovation.

The film has been described as chilling, with one scene portraying Trump raping his first wife Ivana. In addition to scenes of rape, it also features erectile dysfunction, baldness and betrayal. The film begins with Trump as sympathetic, but viewers see his decency erode as he adapts to the dark world of dealmaking and gets a taste for power and influence. As one can imagine, the Trump team is trying to prevent the release by suing the film production and has also rubbished the storyline in the film as false. Abbasi has said that some parts of his film have been fictionalised.

Photo: Courtesy of STUDIOCANAL

The film maker was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1981. He emigrated to Stockholm, Sweden in 2002 where he earned a bachelor’s degree in arts before enrolling at the National Film School of Denmark, earning a degree in 2011 with the short film M for Markus. No stranger to controversy, Abbasi highlights a difficult subject in the 2022 film Holy Spider, telling the true story of Saeed Hanaei who saw himself on a mission from God when he killed 16 women between 2000 and 2001. Holy Spider was nominated in two categories at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, Palme d’Or and Best Actress – winning the latter.

Abbasi’s film Border (Gräns) won Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018, and was Sweden’s selection for the Academy Awards in 2019, but was not nominated. A frequent critic of the political leadership in Iran, Abbasi often takes to X (formerly Twitter) to criticise the Iranian establishment.

The Apprentice is set to be released in Italy on 26 September, Australia on 10 October, Denmark and Germany on 17 October, Spain, Poland, Turkey and the UK on 18 October and Russia on 24 October. The US release is still up in the air due to a legal battle following Trump’s lawsuit.

Anders Lorenzen is a Danish blogger and film and TV enthusiast living in London.