Stander

This “based on a true story” renegade-cop drama set in South Africa is vivid proof that at times fact is indeed stranger than fiction. Johannesburg police Capt. Andre Stander (Tom Jane in a commanding, breakout performance) was following in the career footsteps of his father until he killed a man during an apartheid protest. He then became a 1970s folk hero of sorts for robbing banks in protest of the oppressive system that was turning his homeland into a bloodied battleground. Director Bronwen Hughes transports us into time and place with edgy vigor, especially during the film’s first half, but Stander’s ambiguous transformation into a fugitive begs for more back story, to be emotionally explosive and complete. Deborah Unger (The Salton Sea and Crash) as Stander’s wife contributes heavily to the film’s smoldering psychological intensity.