📽 AT THE MOVIES-

The story of the rise of "New York's golden boy": Only a month before the start of the US presidential election race, Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi has released The Apprentice, shedding light on Donald Trump's early days in the world of real estate during the 70s and 80s.

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The origin story: When Trump Sr. — Donald Trump’s father — is sued by one of his residential buildings’s tenants on charges of racial discrimination, his son Donald (Sebastian Stan) seeks the help of the notorious lawyer Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Meanwhile, Trump meets the Czech model Ivana (Maria Bakalova), who he immediately falls in love with and decides to marry.

Cohn succeeds in helping Trump through devious methods, and the two develop a father/son like relationship. Cohn guides Trump by sharing his life experience through three lessons: “Attack, attack, attack; Admit nothing, deny everything; and No matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat.” Sound familiar? The film then follows Trump's gradual transformation from a humble young man into this superlicious lawyer.

The film does not go into Trump's upbringing in detail, but focuses on the relationship between Roy and Donald, as the latter emerges as one of America's most important businessmen. It is a story about corruption in the capitalist world, where truth is relative, ethics are loose, and those with influence and power try to achieve their goals at any cost.

Trump publicly snubbed the film, describing the writer, Jeb Sherman, as "talentless" and the film as a "politically disgusting hatchet job." He considered it an attack on himself and his relationship with his late first wife. Abbasi invited Donald to watch the film before discussing it with him.

Stan and Strong’s performances were impressive, as Stan accurately reflected Trump's mannerisms in all its details without being a parody, and Strong, with the same prowess we saw in Succession, succeeded in embodying the character of the deceitful lawyer with a strong and capable performance despite moments of defeat and weakness.

WHERE TO WATCH IT- You can find the film at VOX cinemas at Mall of Egypt, City StarsCinema, Cairo Festival City,Point 90 Cinema, Cima Arkan, Zamalek Cinema, and Zawya. You can also watch the trailer on YouTube (runtime: 1:52).

📚 FROM THE BOOKSTORE-

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