Actress Embeth Davidtz makes her directorial debut with an adaptation of Alexandra Fuller's 2001 memoir about growing up during the time when the British African colony of Rhodesia was transforming into the independent nation of Zimbabwe.
In Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, Davidtz, born in the US but raised in South Africa, plays Nicole Fuller, an alcoholic mother deeply rooted in the colonial world Britain had created. Nicole refuses to accept a looming separation from the land, but the movie belongs to Lexi Venter as Bobo, Nicole's uninhibited eight-year-old daughter.
Set in 1980, the story takes place just as Robert Mugabe (a revolutionary) and Bishop Abel Muzorewa (regarded by some as a collaborator with the British) compete in a national election. The heated political backdrop enables Davidtz to heighten the prejudices and fears that filter down to Bobo from the adults around her.
Davidtz also includes the Africans who work for Bobo's family (Zikhona Bali and Fumani N. Shilubana), but her focus mostly remains tethered to Bobo's viewpoint, which is both an asset and a drawback.
Although Davidtz makes white racism abundantly clear with Dad frequently venturing off to fight "terrorists," the focus on Bobo constrains the movie from fully exploring the struggle in which the story takes root, thus limiting its ability to make a stronger impression.
Narrated by Venter, Don't Let's Go gradually increases the family discord surrounding Bobo, whose dirt-covered, disheveled appearance makes it seem as if the land itself gave birth to her. In contrast to the recalcitrant Nicole, Dad (Rob van Vuuren) eventually accepts the family's need to abandon its rundown farm.
In a sidebar story, Nicole's older sister (Annie Reed) becomes a target for a lecherous farmer, another clue about the deep toxicity of an insular colonial environment.
Venter's naturalism helps carry the day, although I found it difficult not to wonder whether Davidtz might have been aiming for something more thematically expansive. At its best, though, Don't Let's Go serves as a telling portrait of how Bolo navigates a world she's too young to grasp.
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