Like his colleagues, local politician Manuel has amassed sizable personal wealth from siphoned investment funds. When the party bosses decide to root out corruption to avert a national scandal, they choose to make an example out of Manuel, who threatens to expose the entire apparatus.

Retooling the 1970s paranoid thriller for today’s broken politics, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s seaside corruption drama is as riveting as it is insightful. Anchored by a captivating, antiheroic performance from Antonio de la Torre, The Candidate pulses with the nervy energy of its electronic score.