Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

Having read and thoroughly enjoyed all of Alexandra Fuller's (Bobo) non-fiction books, this film was inconsistent with the author's presentation of, well, everything. In the book her parents are written as free spirits who live life fully and while surely not traditional, are refreshing opposites of today's over- protective "helicopter" parents.

The film shows the very real lifelong wounds of a child growing up through the dangers of a war zone and is a strong reminder that resonates today. But the book also recognizes the values of living a life that allows experiences to teach us lessons of living with a passion for true freedom of expression.

In the book both views are beautifully interwoven without judgement and thankfully are not presented as what would be a false dichotomy.

This film shows a bleak view of the parents, the life, and only the spirit of wonderful little Bobo. Bobo's spirit comes from her parent's example and the film doesn't even hint at that.

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.

In my travels over my lifetime, it seems as memorable as the geography was the people I met along the way. Among those was a couple from Cairns, Queensland, Australia, whom I met in 1986.

They were millionaire farmers in what was Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, who decided to leave quickly after some of their neighbors had been murdered.

This was after Robert Mugabe had taken over the country.

They were allowed to leave with only 1 car, and had to leave all of their other assets behind.

So they chose their Rolls Royce, which upon entry to Australia, leaned by law that the car would be impounded in a warehouse for 2 years . They were to use the car as seed money to start a new life.

So they invited me to dinner in their humble cinderblock house.

And I thought at the time and have for 40 years of their lives, previously comfortable after their family's generations in formerly Rhodesia having to start over in their 60s in a new country.

This movie mirrors their times, although from the perspective of a much humbler farm family and through the eyes of their 8 year old daughter, Bobo.

Where at the time (1980) normal life was for a mother to have over her shoulders an Uzi submachine gun slung over her shoulders.

Or shooting a cobra on your porch.

This movie is supposed to be "somewhat" factual, based on a novel.

But it offered an interesting glimpse into the times of the politics, through the eyes of an innocent 8 year old girl.

It's difficult to review a film like this because it wants you to feel bad for it's characters but they're all kind of terrible people. Fantastic acting from all parties involved but I think a few of the scripts issues that makes this movie more trashy than it needed to be.

There is a very uncomfortable scene that happens towards the middle of the film that really did not need to be there. It's only glaced upon once more in the film and it did nothing for the story. If you've seen it, you know what I mean.

There's also a simplicity to this story that felt like it only got skin deep for me. The political climate in that part of the world is volatile to say the least, but the film doesn't really show enough of that to make us feel like real danger is looming. Just some couple who are loosing their farm to the native people of that land. Interesting, but not as deep or thoughtful as it could've been.

Overall, not a bad film, but not a particularly good one either. The film seems to wallow in this pit of a crappy childhood as opposed to the realism of the danger these people put themselves in and the lack of care for the native people of that land. Personally, for me, it dragged the film down and made what should've been a hard hitting story into something that was difficult to relate to.

2.5 dogs out of 5.

I've read most of Fuller's books, including this titular one (which I've read twice). They present a view of Africa (as the other books move to different locales) that I've never encountered: people living on the wrong side of history, but unapologetically so. And this is where the book differs significantly from the film, with the result that the film is quite a different story from the book.

Fuller, in the memoir, presents her family's lives in a matter-of-fact way, aware of the Rhodesian Bush War and its dangers, particularly to Tim, the father. Since the memoir is retrospect, you get a rather adult colouring of Fuller's childhood. She is aware, too, of course, of the racism that permeates the country's politics; yet she is more interested in her family's hardscrabble efforts to make a living.

The film shifts this to a story that highlights and centres the racism that allowed the Fuller family (and other white families) the privileges (such as they were) they enjoyed. Thus, what I've pointedly called the Rhodesian Bush War in the book becomes, in the film, Zimbabwe War of Liberation. This tonal shift is perhaps unsurprising, as it would likely be impossible to adhere fully to Fuller's memoir given contemporary attitudes to the horrors of racism and colonialism.

What changes too is the point of view, from the memoir's retrospective adult to the film's seven-year-old's contemporary understanding. Initially, this threw me; but as the film progressed, and the information that Bobo takes in is the same information that you take in, the harsh, oppressive realities of a colonial way of life sink in.

Bobo's parents' attitudes, for example, certainly shape hers. In one scene, she orders around her Black African playmates until she is corrected by Sarah, a hired hand, who tells her that these children are her equals and not her servants. The neighbouring white families are depicted as low-class salacious slobs who refuse to understand the historical shift taking place; and while I realize that this may have been the case, the film pushes the point to the extent that none of the whites have any redeeming qualities, and this felt a bit off-kilter.

Nevertheless, the film is mostly flawless: acting, directing, cinematography, editing -- all brilliant, especially Lexi Venter as Bobo and Davidtz as the mother (and as director). These two should be up for major awards, along with the film itself. Highly recommended.