Trump gets the Succession treatment in masterful tale of his rise to power

ONE of the hottest tickets in Cannes this year is Iranian director Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice, his tale of the rise and rise of Donald Trump.

The Apprentice 
Cannes Film Festival
Jo-Ann Titmarsh

The apprentice in question is Trump himself (Sebastian Stan), while the master he serves and later usurps is Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong), a lawyer who hobnobs with leaders and has the ear of the president.

Cohn is ruthless and will stop at nothing to attain what he wants, often in the name of a patriotism which equals hard-Right conservatism.

The film opens in Seventies New York. Trump is a baby-faced teetotal rent collector for his dad, but he yearns to break free of his father's grip and strive for greater things, obsessing over the tycoons and millionaires that frequent Le Club.

This is where he meets Cohn who takes Trump under his wing and instructs him to follow his three essential tenets, which are all about achieving, denial and how even a defeat can be turned into a win.

Abbasi deftly recreates the feel of the city and the darkness of those years. And what starts gritty becomes colourful once Ivana (Maria Bakalova) appears with platinum blonde hair, a scarlet dress and matching glossy lips.