The Candidate

The Candidate is a black-and-white silent feature film marking the directorial debut of Mark Bell, the Olivier Award-winning director known for The Play That Goes Wrong. The project stars Sophie Simnett alongside writer-actor Jack Whittle in a Chaplin-era inspired silent comedy with a dance interlude and an original score by composer Howard Goodall. Simnett plays a character called Love, described as a tribute to the great leading ladies of silent cinema, while Whittle leads as a naïve dreamer who accidentally ascends to power. Over The Fence Films is producing, with production scheduled for autumn 2026 in the United Kingdom. The film explores themes of power, purpose, and what we truly value in leaders, told through physical comedy and silent storytelling in the tradition of classic cinema.