Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

Bobo, a dreamy eight-year-old girl (played by the magnificent Lexi Venter), narrates her adventures, fears and fantasies as she roams around her family’s impoverished farm in Rhodesia, a kind of modern-day Huck Finn. But meanwhile, an armed struggle between whites and blacks in Rhodesia intensifies, as, after generations of apartheid, the indigenous community rises up to eject the colonizing forces. Bobo relies entirely on the nurturing care and teaching of the African workers Sarah (Zikhona Bali) and Jacob (Fumani N. Shilubana), yet is unbothered by racist cliches she learned from her family and that she deploys herself. Perhaps it’s because she’s busy managing her charismatic but dangerously unstable mother, played by Embeth Davidtz, who also directs and adapted the screenplay from Alexandra Fuller’s acclaimed memoir. With the aid of Willie Nel’s fluid cinematography, Davidtz’s poignant, sensuous film tells a tale of painful losses, political upheaval and the irrepressible, wild joys of childhood. (Telluride Film Festival)