The Regent is preparing for a full house for CAFF’s gala opening night — and for the closing night screening, which features a film that’s been pretty hard to see.

Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice, which charts Donald Trump’s early years, has now found a distributor in the United States — but for months, whether the film would be released in its home country has been a matter of debate.

The film screens on Sunday at 8pm, following very successful debuts this year at CANNES and TIFF. It is introduced with a recorded conversation between two journalism superstars — David Frum, who has written two books on the Trump years, and Wendy Mesley, a former anchor of CBC’s The National. Both also happen to live in the County. 

Named after the reality show that made Trump a household name from 2004 to 2015, the film follows his early years — Trump’s business dealings in New York in the 1970s and ’80s, when he was mentored by gangster-lawyer Roy Cohn. 

Its producers claim it is a work of fiction, yet every character is named for a real person. The film  raises the question of truth in fiction, or the truth of fiction — how fictionalized renderings, paradoxically, do get at the truth.

CAFF is full of such interesting questions. It’s also full of fun. Friday night’s Gala Screening of The Widow Cliquot — complete, of course, with a County version of champagne, Karlo Estates’ Bubble — also stages a conversation between the writer of the book from which the film is adapted, Tilar J. Mazzeo, screenwriter Erin Dignam, and renowned Writers & Company interviewer, Eleanor Wachtel.

That event is followed by a giant, unticketed party in Armoury square.

Saturday is full of family-friendly events, starting with Lisa Jackson’s Biidaaban: First Light, an immersive VR experience in the Regent Theatre Lobby. Whispering Winds Singers & Dancers and Tyendinaga Women’s Water Drum Singers offer drumming, singing, dancing, story sharing and a native crafts display in the Sensory Garden at Base31 that afternoon.

“We are very encouraged by ticket sales for the festival,” says Artistic Director Alexandra Seay. “Our opening night tickets are selling briskly. We are expecting a sold-out opening and closing.” 

The festival was advertised locally and in nearby urban centers in print, on the radio, in digital formats, and through a robust social media campaign. Visitors are staying with the festival’s accommodation partners, Merrill House and The Royal, as well as at the network of properties represented by festival sponsors StayPEC and Visit the County.

If you find you are out of luck purchasing tickets this week, rush tickets may become available on the day of a given screening. Check the CAFF website for all the details. Picton Main Street will be alive all day on Saturday the 28th with a giant sidewalk sale.