STANDER

Year: 2003
USA: Newmarket Films
UK: Momentum Theatrical
Cast: Thomas Jane, David Patrick O'Hara, Dexter Fletcher, Deborah Unger, Ashley Taylor, Marius Weyers, At Botha, Lionel Newton, Melanie Merle, Hannes Muller, Shaeleen Tobin, Sean Else, Peter Gardner, Patrick Mynhardt, Wikus du Toit, Drummond Marais, Nicole Abel, Waldemar Schultz, Emgee Pretorius, James Borthwick, Graham Clarke, Andre Stolz, Robin Smith, Allan Bevolo, Jacques Gombault, Anton Dekker, Dirk Stoltz, Neels Coetzee, Lynn Hooker, Iain Paton, Ben Kruger, Thomas Ramabu, Diaan Lawrenson, Duncan Lawson, Paul Luckhoff, Cassidy Coombs, Anel Olsson, Steven Raymond, Chris Steyn, George Moolman, Andrew Thompson, Val Donald-Bell, Moshoeshoe Chabeli, Ron Smerczak, Clive Scott, John Lesley, Shafa'ath-Ahmad Khan, Graham Hopkins, Paul Ditchfield, Chris Buchanan, Ben Horowitz, Charlotte Butler, Matt Stern, Kerry Hiles, Duncan Harling, Mawongo Tyawa, Fats Bookholane, Paul Slabolepszy, Justin Strydom, Ferdinand Rabie, Dan Robbertse, Errol Ballentine, Shane Howarth, Tessa Jubber, Gert White, Denton Douglas, Neil Coppen, Tyrone Akal, Zaa Nkweta, David Dukas, Judy Ditchfield
Director: Bronwen Hughes
Countries: Canada / Germany / South Africa / UK
USA: 111 mins
UK: 112 mins
USA Rated: R for violence, language, some sexuality and nudity
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong language, sex and violence
USA Release Date: 20 August 2004 (Limited Release - San Francisco, San Rafael and Berkeley, California and Dallas, Texas)
USA Release Date: 6 August 2004 (Limited Release)
UK Release Date: 27 May 2005


Synopsis

STANDER is the gripping true story of the life of Andre Stander, the youngest Captain in the Johannesburg Police Force and South Africa's most notorious bank robber.

Portrayed by Thomas Jane (THE PUNISHER) in a mercurial, star-turn performance, Andre Stander is a young, white policeman enjoying the comforts of middle-class married life in late-1970s South Africa, a country riven by Apartheid. Deeply affected by the indiscriminate killing he witnesses and takes part in during Riot Patrol, Stander wordlessly makes a decision to defy the very system he has spent a lifetime enforcing. Stander's form of civil disobedience, however, takes an unusual form: a series of audacious, high-flying bank robberies, with the young police officer oftentimes returning to the scene of the crime as the lead investigating officer.

Finally apprehended by his colleagues, Stander is jailed and subsequently befriends outlaws Allan Heyl and Lee McCall. Following a daring prison break, the "Stander Gang" commits dozens of bank robberies across the country, heists that grow increasingly bolder over time. In the eyes of the public, the Stander Gang's nose-thumbing disrespect for authority makes them into near-legendary folk heroes, modern-day equivalents of Bonnie & Clyde. To the South African government, however, the former police officer is a cause of embarrassment, and the Stander Gang are the most wanted men in the country.

Equal parts heist movie, love story, and historically accurate indictment of a corrupt political institution (on the tenth anniversary of Apartheid's end), STANDER is the most riveting, uncanny biopic in recent memory.

Filmed entirely on location in South Africa, STANDER is directed by Bronwen Hughes (FORCES OF NATURE, HARRIET THE SPY), and co-stars Dexter Fletcher (LOCK, STOCK AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS), David Patrick O'Hara (BRAVEHEART, THE DEVIL'S OWN), and Deborah Kara Unger (CRASH, THE HURRICANE, THE GAME) as Andre Stander's wife.