Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

Embeth Davidtz has had a good career as an actor. I first became aware of her as Miss Honey in Danny DeVito's movie of MATILDA, in which she was warm and endearing without a trace of sentimentality -- quite an achievement. Next time I encountered her was in JUNEBUG in which presented a completely different but equally believable character. It was evident that she was a high-quality artist. But nothing could have prepared me for how brilliant she is as a mother at the end of her tether in this excellent movie. Not only that; she directed and co-wrote it.

Her major triumph as a director is to bring out from young Lexi Venter a tough and beguiling performance. The whole story is seen through her character's eyes, so everything rests on her, and she totally delivers under Ms Davittz's expert guidance.

The movie is based on a memoir by Alexandra Fuller, who is the film's co-writer with Ms Davitdz. It tells of Ms Fuller's experiences as a child observing the process of her settler-colonial parents and their neighbours facing up to (or, in most cases, not facing up to) the return of the land that had been acquired in what had been Rhodesia to the newly-independent nation of Zimbabwe. The counterpointing of the political and domestic in Ms Fuller's story is its great strength, and director Davidtz makes it the spine of the film.

There's terrific support from the whole cast, with a special shout out to Zihkona Bali as Sarah, a worker in the colonial household who finds herself at the centre of a storm.

I really can't recommend this film highly enough. Please see it.

This film doesn't hold back any punches depicting White racism and black oppression and the violence of the times. An excellent realistic depiction of both white and black southern Africa at that time, where white southern Africans were driven into a corner in the country they had had ruled for decades from a legacy of European imperialism, where they too end up being victims of their own culture. This was all perfectly portrayed and captured an accurate time capsule of modern African history. Brilliant acting by Ms Venter who plays the free spirited young protagonist whose unvarnished and unrelenting view of the world she inhabits brings into conflict with everyone around her. Her performance is completely natural and powerful and drives the narrative with complete authenticity.

An unforgettable achievement - Davidtz, making a bold and assured leap behind the camera, directs with a rare combination of restraint and boldness. Davidtz, herself born and raised in South Africa, brings a rare authenticity and emotional precision to the film that elevates it beyond a simple adaptation. Beautifully performed, and devastatingly honest. A must-watch. The cast is a lineup of performers that feel entirely lived-in, as if pulled from the soil of the land itself.

The time period is around 1980, as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. It shows the effect of the political change on one farm family, plus the white and black communities around them.

The story is told from the viewpoint of Bobo, an 8-year-old girl. She shares her room with her teenage sister. Their father is a soldier, and can be on duty away from home for periods of time. The heart of the family is their mother, for whom their cattle farm is her life, even though she also is a part-time police desk officer. They have two black servants, Jacob and Sarah, and Bobo seems closer to Sarah than her own mother. While Bobo is fascinated by black culture, she has learned to treat all black people as an underclass.

Ironically, for the secondary characters, the relationships between the members of the black community are more murky than the relationships between the members of the white community.

At the start, the Bush War is still going on. Terrorists are killing whites, and mother sleeps with a gun by her side. We go to the 1980 election, where mother implores the blacks she knows to vote for "The Bishop" - a centrist politician. But when Marxist Mugabe wins, the whites have to decide whether to leave or to try and stick it out.

The film is based on a personal memoir from 2021. There is a disclaimer that, while based on actual events, there have been fictionalizations for dramatic reasons. The time line seems to have been compressed. The sister is hanging around the home all the time, with no indication that she is being home-schooled, so she should mostly be away in boarding school somewhere.

With that caveat, the film works. Bobo is a delight to watch, and writer / director / star (the mother) Embeth Davidtz does a good portrayal of someone who lives under multiple stresses.

The days of independent 'arthouse' movie theaters are, sadly, mostly a thing of the past unless you live in a market that can support one. This film would certainly land there if there were any. I was rapt with the story , cinematography . . . And . . . Acting. Some of the shot set ups are remarkedly artistic and original. The main character, a young child is in practically every shot and scene and could not be more believable in that portrayal and you are always seeing things from her point of view and nothing is ever hyped or remotely artificial. I hesitated to give the movie eight stars only because I reserve that for only the very best and special kind of movies but this one is at that level because everything and I mean everything works and it is great story on a deeply human level. No one is pigeon holed , you can relate to anyone of them. Not Hollywood ,studio fare, best movie I have seen in quite some time.