COP AND ROBBER

IN 1977, A JOHANNESBURG POLICE CAPTAIN TURNED TO CRIME AND BECAME SOUTH AFRICA’S MOST WANTED MAN. MAX LEVANT REPORTS ON STANDER, A MAJOR NEW MOVIE WHICH COULD MAKE HIM A HOUSEHOLD NAME AROUND THE WORLD.

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You’d have thought South Africans would have got used to film crews by now: after all, the country recently took over from Australia as the world’s most popular ‘exotic’ location. But Stander is obviously something different: a big-budget movie with international stars about a moment in South African history that spawned pop songs, books and (mostly) fond memories among anyone over the age of 30.

‘Stander is terug!’ (‘Stander Is Back!’) ran the headline in the Johannesburg daily Die Beeld. Despite the fact that he has been dead for almost 20 years, every South African knows who Stander is. And, reckons UK producer Julia Verdin, a lot of other people around the world will soon find out: Stander - which began shooting on 170-plus locations across South Africa this September - will be internationally released late next year. “Stander is one of those great stories that can be told in a single sentence and understood by us all,” says South African producer Chris Roland. “If it weren’t a true story, no one would believe it!”

The real-life Andre Stander was the son of a conservative general who rose swiftly through the ranks of the South African police to become head of the Kempton Park CID by the age of 31. It wasn’t as a successful lawman that Stander became a household name, however. While part of a special task force, he was forced to take part in brutal killings during a township riot - an experience which led him to re-evalute his life: defying the system of which he was a part, he set off on a crime spree. Once a week, he would fly to Durban, don a disguise, rob a bank and fly back to Johannesburg with a suitcase full of money.

Due to his experience investigating theft, he was easily able to outsmart the police. It was only when he confessed to his best friend and fellow State Security Force employee, Cor Van Deventer, that the spree came to an end. Stander was arrested, charged with 28 counts of robbery and sentenced to 75 years in prison.