Movies

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, starring Lexi Venter and directed by Embeth Davidtz
Trailer: Sony Pictures Classics

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
Directed by Embeth Davidtz
Rated R
Voted 18 July 2025
#DontLetsGoToTheDogsTonight

While the subject matter in this true story is oftentimes challenging, the theatrical experience crafted by Embeth Davidtz is equally rewarding.

Queen of Zimbabwe

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight is an unusual title for a memoir about a British girl’s childhood while being raised in Africa. But open the book’s cover and there’s a quote from A.P. Herbert, a British humorist and poet, "Don’t let’s go to the dogs tonight, for mother will be there."

Then it all starts to make sense.

The young girl is Alexandra Fuller, nicknamed Bobo, and her mother, Nicola, could be quite a challenging woman to be around. The matriarch is known to get drunk, sleeps with a rifle cradled in her arms and shoots to kill cobras invading her overheated domestic bliss. ("Sorry about the mess," she says.)

The setting is 1980 Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, a sovereign state going through a turbulent election cycle as the revolutionary Robert Mugabe seeks to become Prime Minister. It’s a transformational period as its namesake, the British colonist Cecil Rhodes, is soon to be ditched and the area to be renamed as the Republic of Zimbabwe.

It’s a timely story centered around abusive relationships, not just at home, but on a national level, as immigration, racism, terrorism and territorialism are the central focus of most of the citizens.

Most, but not all.

There’s Bobo. She’s scruffy, stinky; borderline feral. At only 7 years of age, she’s still color blind and learning about how the world works. Bobo’s quite a character: she smokes and curses; like her mom, she’s a good shot with a rifle; she typically has a dirty face and she brandishes a bit of an attitude. As a housekeeper says to her, "There’s something wrong with you."

But Bobo knows better. She responds, "There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m perfect."

And she’s also wise for one so young. She’s perpetually on the lookout for terrorists. It’s a world in which the family is escorted into town by "bright lights," armed former soldiers who’ve already seen too much and who offer protection against ambushes and land mines.

Welcome to Umtali

Bobo is brought to life by newcomer Lexi Venter in an astonishingly engaging debut performance that’s pretty much pitch perfect. And that’s in large part thanks to the impressive directorial debut of Embeth Davidtz, a seasoned actress (one of her early roles was as Helen Hirsch in Schindler’s List). But this is not only the first directing gig for Davidtz, it’s also her first screenplay and, coupled with her own commanding performance as Nicola and Venter’s debut as Bobo, it all makes for a remarkable film production.

Davidtz brings a considerable amount of personal perspective to the movie, having been born in the USA, but raised in South Africa as that country faced its own tumultuous dealings with racism and Apartheid.

And, of course, there are current events around the world that, as Davidtz has noted, reflect the same themes, whether it’s Ukraine and Russia; Israel and Palestine or even the immigration challenges being faced in the United States.

As timely as the narrative is, the production is decidedly set as counterprogramming in a summer season full of CGI dinosaurs, dragons and flying superheroes. While there’s a current of war running throughout the movie, there’s no boss battle in Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight. It’s a movie designed to paint a picture of a time and a place; it’s a study of character and relationships.

It’s about boundaries, all sorts for boundaries. Personal. Physical. Emotional. Political. Territorial.

Family Bonds

Don’t Let’s Go plays a little bit like Paul Theroux’s fictional The Mosquito Coast, a tale of a father whose idealism pushes him to the edge of sanity while endangering his entire family as he uproots them from the relative tranquility of the U.S. in favor of the less comfortable environs of Central America. Maybe it’s an association that’s also brought on by how both stories — as theatrical experiences — are told with narration provided by a youthful and innocent protagonist.

The Fuller family is loaded with tragedy. Bobo’s brother died of meningitis while still an infant. A sister died in an accidental drowning.

And that incident brings pangs of regret to both Bobo and Nicola, a regret from having let the little girl wander off without their supervision. Nicola ceded responsibility to her youngest daughter so she could — selfishly — do her own thing. And Bobo, well, she’s only a very young child and she doesn’t understand what it means to be responsible when the opportunity to play is at hand.

There’s a lot of rawness in the people, the environment and the production. It’s a rawness that serves the material well.

And that rawness can be gut wrenching, particularly as Davidtz digs deep into the emotional turmoil and anguish that overwhelms Nicola’s life. It’s powerful filmmaking.

Turn Around

In such a challenging environment, while there are the tremendous losses experienced by the Fuller family, there’s also the pain averted.

Sarah (Zikhona Bali, The Forgiven), the family’s maid, risks her own well-being by befriending Bobo and allowing her into her life in ways that those outside of the family circle would question and challenge as thoroughly inappropriate conduct. But she’s actually being a good friend and something of a surrogate mother to the child while Nicola battles her demons. Nonetheless, a raid on the Fuller farm leaves Sarah near death, with Bobo revisiting her sister’s loss as her motherly/sisterly friend lies on the kitchen floor, a bloody mess.

And Bobo earns something akin to redemption when she finds her mother drowning in the bathtub, in what appears to be a suicidal act.

Lives lost. Lives saved. Lives challenged.

It’s certainly not the easiest movie to watch, with so much heavy material covered in a tightly packed 98-minute experience.

There’s a lot of emotion and frustration on display in a setting that’s a powder keg of political conflict and cultural clashes. And there are also fascinating insights into belief systems surrounding death, the spiritual world and how different people look at the physical world. Breeding is one thing thoroughly out of an individual’s control, wealth a little less so, depending on the environment. But how people should treat each other with a fundamental respect is something that should be universally understood, and yet nothing could be further from reality.

As the end credits roll, it’s all brought home with actual Fuller family photos, some of the same photos seen in Alexandra’s book.

• Originally published at MovieHabit.com.

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