The Candidate

The Candidate is a 2008 Danish film, the first shot in the 2-perf format. Its original Danish title is Kandidaten. The film tells the story of Jonas Bechmann who believes the car accident that killed his father was no accident. When he goes in search of the facts behind his father's death, he finds himself set up for murder. Plot Advocate Jonas Bechmann is going through a crisis. It has been one year since his father died in a car crash. Although the police have not pursued the case, Jonas believes it was, in fact, murder, connected to the last case his father worked on. To investigate the murder, Jonas quits his job and applies for the post at the law firm his father left open when he died. He is denied the job but told by his father's old partner, Martin Schiller, that evidence has been found his father took a bribe to make evidence disappear that incriminated his last client, Claes Kiehlert. Furthermore, Martin implies that Jonas' father was killed because the evidence turned up in court after all. Devastated Jonas indulges in a wild night on the town. He wakes the next morning in a hotel room, having only vague memories of having cheated on his fiancée, Camilla. When he enters the bathroom, he finds last night's girl dead on the floor, her throat heavily bruised. He hides the evidence of ever having been there and goes home to find an anonymous envelope waiting for him. It contains a DVD with incriminating footage of him making love to the girl and her being strangled to death. Furthermore, the message states a sum - 5,000,000 Danish Krone - a date and a place. When Jonas goes to the place of delivery with the money (everything he owns), he hands over the payoff to the wrong person, an incidental passerby walking his Great Dane, who takes off without a word. Next, two masked men arrive demanding that he deliver the same sum of money the next day at the same spot. To put further pressure on Jonas the tape will be delivered to Camilla. The police will be next, the blackmailers warn him.