Salocin

Stander

Stander is another gem I was lucky enough to pick up on at the Sundance Film Festival. Set in the apartheid era in South Africa, this story follows the life of Andre Stander (played by Thomas Jane), a Johannesburg police captain who has some problems with the way in which the police (and therefore he himself) maintains the apartheid regime. On riot duty, he shoots an unarmed black man, and has a crisis of conscience, requesting later that he be excused from future riot duty.

Not long after, he finds himself all alone in the police station, and realises that all the other officers are on riot duty somewhere, and caustically remarks that any white man could commit a crime in Johannesburg now and would never be caught. In a moment of decision, he enters the Kruger Bank, pulls a gun on the teller, and robs the place, disappearing into the crowd. He later returns, as a police captain, and brazenly looks into the eyes of the bank teller he only recently robbed.

Caught by his partner, escaping from prison, and robbing banks up and down the country, he quickly becomes a sensation, but always his fundamental reasons - the guilt of his prior role, and the inequity of police attention - remain. Caught up in the excitement of his current life of crime, we nevertheless feel the consequences of his decision through the unhappiness caused by his separation from his wife (played by Deborah Unger) and his father (Marius Weyers).

Harshly critical, but historically aware of the nature of the apartheid regime, and with "Catch me if you can" style, this film entertains while making a deliberately ambiguous statement about being born on one side of a fence. It shows the difficult, exciting, and ultimately damaging consequences of having to conform to a society at odds with one's own sense of right and wrong.

Directed with a sure hand by Bronwen Hughes, this film was shown to a packed house at the very chilly Sundance Film Festival this January.