The critically acclaimed Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice — which the former president has repeatedly denounced — is heading to cinemas in a somewhat surprising place: Russia.
The film, written by veteran Vanity Fair reporter Gabriel Sherman and directed by rising Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, is opening on 800 screens across Russia on Friday. Moscow-based distributor Arna Media is handling the release after acquiring the local rights to the film last month from U.K. sales agent Rocket Science. Sources close to the film say that only modest cuts were required to get the movie into Russia.
The Russia release plan stands somewhat in contrast to the real Donald Trump’s reportedly cozy relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin has drastically curtailed any artistic expression he deems unwelcome to his regime’s interests. Moscow has raided concerts and fined musicians who have criticized the country’s war in Ukraine, put dissenting filmmakers on wanted lists, and censored books and art exhibitions.
Last month, journalist Bob Woodward reported that Trump has spoken with Putin repeatedly since leaving the White House. Meanwhile, Trump has threatened to sue the producers of The Apprentice and described the film as “a cheap, defamatory and politically disgusting hatchet job.”
“So sad that HUMAN SCUM, like the people involved in this hopefully unsuccessful enterprise, are allowed to say and do whatever they want in order to hurt a Political Movement,” Trump added in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Film critics, however, have taken a different view. The Apprentice debuted to rave reviews and an eight-minute standing ovation when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May. The powerful work from the film’s key cast — Marvel star Sebastian Stan in a riveting turn as the young Donald; Succession favorite Jeremy Strong bringing his full method-actor intensity to the dark eccentricities of Cohn; and Borat 2 breakout Maria Bakalova as a vivacious young Ivana Trump — have made the movie an Oscars frontrunner in several categories for the 97th Academy Awards.
Nevertheless, the movie’s journey to U.S. movie screens was fraught — and that was the case in Russia, too.
Days after the premiere in France, Trump’s lawyers filed a cease and desist letter threatening to sue the producers and any future distributors of The Apprentice. Around the same time, reports emerged that the film’s principal financier, Kinematics — founded by producer Mark Rapaport, son-in-law of the billionaire and known Trump donor Dan Snyder — had objections to a pivotal scene in the movie where a young Donald rapes his then-wife Ivana Trump.
A protracted struggle over the final cut of the film ensued, and the perceived risk of retribution from a potential second Trump presidency caused all of the major U.S. studios and streamers to pass on acquiring the movie for release. Eventually, a last-minute agreement between Kinematics and indie distributors Briarcliff Entertainment and startup outfit Rich Spirit cleared the way for the movie to open in North America on Oct. 11. The deal also returned the final cut of the film into the hands of its director, Abbassi, who gave it a rigorous re-edit, strengthening several sequences, including the sexual assault scene.
For the Russia release, the producers initially received requests to remove the rape scene entirely. Abbassi is said to have argued strenuously for its importance to the film and a compromise was eventually reached. The final Russian cut restored the version of the assault scene that played at the Cannes premiere instead of the longer and more frank depiction of Abbassi’s final cut.
That a Russian distributor would jump at the chance to try to release The Apprentice is perhaps no surprise. The country has been starved of Hollywood fare since the studios began their boycott of the Russian market in the wake of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Independent companies, which never stopped selling into Russia, have benefited from the lack of studio competition.
In North America, The Apprentice opened below expectations last month with $1.6 million in its first weekend. The domestic number has since grown to about $3.9 million for a worldwide total of $12 million. The film launches on premium VOD platforms — Apple TV, Prime Video, Vudu, etc. — on Friday, Nov. 1.
“We’re pretty happy with that number,” says executive producer James Shani. “From the beginning, we expected this film to be a slow burn through awards season and beyond.”
Shani also says The Apprentice‘s global number has taken a slight hit because the film was forced to drop several international markets over censorship issues. Abbassi and his producers engaged in back-and-forth negotiations with film regulators in India, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, before ultimately concluding that the changes requested by these markets were beyond the pale. Some of the suggested cuts were in keeping with the usual policies of Saudi, Indian and Singaporean film regulators — all conservative and censorious territories in their own way. But it eventually became clear to The Apprentice team that regulators were taking a heavier-than-usual hand because of the film’s high-profile subject, who could soon return to the U.S. presidency.
“Our perception was that they were asking for more than usual, and trying to play it safer, because of the Trump of it all,” says Shani.
Scott Roxborough contributed to this report from Germany.
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