Embeth Davidtz's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is a well-crafted drama

News24

25-07-2025

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight dep icts 8-year-old Bobo's life on her family's Rhodesian farm during the Bush War's final stages. It explores the family's bond with Africa's land and the war's impact on the region and people through Bobo's perspective (IMDb).
In Embeth Davidtz's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, we see the final days of white-ruled Zimbabwe through the eyes of a child - literally. There are moments when the camera takes the viewer into 8-year-old Bobo's perspective, with her eyelashes and partially closed eyelids in the frame. Bobo's view of the world is skewed by the racist beliefs she was taught, but she is not as naïve or hateful as one would think. The film, under Davidtz's fine direction, offers a fascinating look at Zimbabwe (or Rhodesia) during a transitional and rocky period, with Bobo's perspective offering revelatory insights.
Davidtz, who was born to South African parents, has starred in Matilda, Bicentennial Man and Schindler's List. With Davidtz's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, she makes her directorial debut at age 59. The film is based on a 2001 memoir by British-Zimbabwean author Alexandra Fuller. The book contains stories from Fuller's childhood, with the Rhodesian Bush War serving as a backdrop. In the film, there are numerous references to this, where Bobo casually watches horrific images from the war on TV and looks slightly unsettled by them. It's clear she's grown used to seeing this type of news coverage daily.
The film has an unconventional plot and is more of a continuous string of memories. The viewer understands, almost instinctively, that the time Bobo's family has in Zimbabwe is limited, and there's a constant sense of tension and anxiety bubbling among the adults. The film invites the viewer to be in the present moment with Bobo, instead of predicting where the story is going to go. We watch as the little girl rides a motorcycle and smokes cigarettes, laughs with her cousins outside of a bar, spends time with the family's domestic worker, Sarah, and visits her grandmother. Despite the loose structure, the story is engaging and the 100-minute runtime works in its favour. The energy does, however, lull at certain points, and some scenes are not as interesting as others.
Lexi Venter proves herself a gifted child actor and puts on a phenomenal performance as Bobo. There are times when you forget she's acting and not actually living through the final days of pre-Mugabe Zimbabwe.
Davidtz shared that they only had three hours with Venter per day and they evidently made the best of it. Her voice-over work is equally strong. The performances from Davidtz, who plays Bobo's mother, and Zikhona Bali, as Sarah, are stellar. Rob van Vuuren, playing Bobo's father, has a few great moments too, even though his screentime is limited. The rest of the cast features more South African actors, including Albert Pretorius, whose brief appearances are truly unnerving (intentionally so).
As a director, Davidtz shows a clarity of vision that speaks to her years of experience in the film industry. She has a noticeable and fluid visual style, and some of the creative choices she makes are risky, but they pay off. The editing, credited to Nicholas Costaras, feels choppy at first, but then you adjust to it and it ends up complementing the looseness of the story. The music choices are on point too, including cuts from Roger Whittaker and Chris de Burgh. The scenes are also beautifully shot, and certain frames really highlight the wealth and social disparity between white and black Zimbabwean citizens. However, it does feel like the film doesn't go hard enough on racism and inequality in Zimbabwe and that it's too sympathetic to its white gaze.
One way the film critiques the racism of the white characters is by having Bobo explicitly voice stereotypes about black Zimbabweans, like how anyone can be a terrorist. But Bobo's lack of subtlety highlights the absurdity of these stereotypes and how they contrast with the reality of black people. Bobo's instinct is also to be curious, kind and trusting, despite what she's learnt.
Though not perfect, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is, by most measures, a rousing success and an impressive debut for Davidtz. In the hands of a lesser director, the execution of the story could have gone awry. It's entertaining, but atypical and really well made. It could even be a worthy contender at next year's Oscars in the international feature film category.