Review: ‘Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,’ starring Lexi Venter, Embeth Davidtz and Zikhona Bali

August 21, 2025

by Carla Hay

“Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight”

Directed by Embeth Davditz

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1980 in Zimbabwe, the dramatic film “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” (based on Alexandra Fuller’s 2001 memoir of the same name) features a white and black cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A 7-year-old girl in a white farming family observes how white supremacist racism affects people during a time of political upheaval, as her mother struggles with alcoholism and an undiagnosed mental illness.  

Culture Audience: “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching biopics about how racism affects children and the people around them.

“Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” is a rare movie about racism and family dysfunction from the perspective of a child who is in a racist family. This biographical drama sometimes wanders with repetition. However, it’s a memorable portrayal of the generational poison of racism and how a 7-year-old white girl processes it during 1980’s political turmoil in Zimbabwe.

Written and directed by Embeth Davidtz, “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” is based on Alexandra Fuller’s 2001 memoir of the same name. The movie only covers one part of the memoir, which makes the movie’s plot seem a little thin and leaves questions unanswered at the end. However, there’s enough in the movie to be impactful, especially to viewers who aren’t aware of this side of African history. “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” had its world premiere at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival and its Canadian premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

Writer/director Davidtz, who is one of the movie’s co-stars made this statement in the “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” production notes: “Although Zimbabwe and South Africa’s dismantling of white minority governance differed, there were many similarities between them. When I moved to South Africa from the USA at the age of 8, my childhood played out, not in a full blown war like that of Zimbabwe’s, but in a place at war more quietly (but just as viciously), enforced by a brutally oppressive government, with casual acts of racial violence occurring around me daily.”

The title “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” seems to be inspired by a quote from British writer A.P. Herbert, who wrote a poem with that title. The poem describes people partying and being discretionary about who gets to see their wild sides. A sentence in the poem says, “Don’t let’s go to the dogs tonight, for mother will be there.” The movie’s title takes on an ironic meaning because the alcohol-abusing mother in the story loves to party and is the most destructive character in the movie.

The narrator and protagonist of “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” is 7-year-old Alexandra “Bobo” Fuller (played by Lexi Venter), who is precocious, curious and rebellious. Bobo is homeschooled and lives on a farm with her parents Nicola Fuller (played by Davidtz) and Tim Fuller (played by Rob van Vuuren) and Bobo’s sister Vanessa (played by Anina Reed), who’s about 15 or 16 years old. The Fullers are natives of the United Kingdom and work as patrol guards, while black people do the hard labor on the family’s farm.

According to Alexandra Fuller’s memoir, her parents moved to Rhodesia in 1972, when she was about 3 years old. She was educated at boarding schools in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe before her family moved to Malawi and Zambia. The movie “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” takes place during a few short months in 1980—after the Rhodesian Bush War (also known as the Rhodesian Civil War), which lasted from 1964 to 1979, and ended the white-minority rule of the government.

As a result, Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe and became an independent nation. Elections were held in February and March 1980 for the House of Assembly and the Parliament for this newly formed nation. These elections were a power struggle between four parties: the militant socialist Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (led by Robert Mugabe), which was victorious in the war to end white-minority government oppression; the militant communist Zimbabwe African People’s Union (led by Joshua Nkomo); the moderate United African National Council (led by Abel Tendekayi Muzorewa, also known as Bishop Abel Muzorewa); and the whites-only conservative Rhodesian Front (led by Ian Smith), which is limited to a minority number of seats in the newly independent Zimbabwe. The first prime minister of Zimbabwe would be the leader of the party with the most elected officials.

All of this historical background information is helpful to know but it’s not fully explained in “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” because the movie is told from the memories of Bobo when she was 7 years old. According to her voiceover narration, which is heard throughout the movie, all she knows is that her parents think Mugabe is a “commie bastard” and are fearful about him becoming prime minister of Zimbabwe. Bobo’s parents know that the Rhodesian Front can no longer have a majority in the Zimbabwe government, so the adults in the Fuller family want Muzorewa’s United African National Council to win. According to what Bobo has overheard her parents say, the bishop is “not like a real African,” which is another way of saying that that Bobo’s parents think that Muzorewa is more acceptable and less intimidating to racist white people than the average black African.

The outcomes of these elections will have far-reaching repercussions. What’s at stake for the adults in the Fuller family is maintaining the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed: getting racial privileges and being treated as superior to everyone just because they are white. Muzorewa and the United African National Council are willing to make compromises that the other black-led Zimbabwe parties won’t make.

Near the beginning of the movie, Bobo mentions some of the things she’s been taught by her parents, such as a terrorist can be “waiting in the dark for me with a gun, a knife or a spear.” Bobo has also been taught that “an African can be a terrorist, so you’re not supposed to talk to Africans about anything—just in case they’re terrorists or mates with one.”

The only exceptions that Bobo can make in talking to black people is when she talks to the black Africans who work for her family. A married couple named Sarah (played by Zikhona Bali) and Jacob (played by Shilubana N. Fumani) are the employees who are seen the most. Sarah is the main nanny and maid for the family. Jacob has farming duties. Sarah and Jacob do not have children, which Bobo finds curious because she’s been taught that black Africans have children because it’s instinctual for black people, while white people have children for the purpose of keeping the white race strong.

Later in the movie, there’s a scene in the movie where Bobo and Nicola go to visit Nicola’s unnamed parents (played by Peter Terry and Judy Ditchfield) that shows where Nicola got her racism. Bobo asks her grandmother, “Are we racists?” The grandmother looks insulted and adamantly says no. But when the talk turns to how changes in Zimbabwe could include more generational wealth for black people, the grandmother says, “We have breeding, which is better than money.”

“Africans and white people aren’t the same,” Bobo says in a voiceover. She then describes the different rituals that black Africans and white Westerners have for death. Bobo mentions that she has to call white adults who are family friends “Auntie this or Uncle that,” but she’s allowed to call black adults by their first names without needing to know black people’s last names.

It’s an example of how racism tries to make the targets of racism less than human. Not acknowledging or caring that a person has a last name is way of erasing the fact that this person has a family history. It’s why black Africans who were enslaved were deprived of their native last names by not being allowed to have last names or by being re-assigned the surnames of the people who enslaved them.

These are things that Bobo doesn’t know or understand. She sees her world through a combination of adult-taught racism, child-like ignorance and observant confusion that the negative things that her parent taught her about black Africans don’t really match up to what she experiences in real life. Sarah is kind and helpful to Bobo and talks to her as if Bobo were her own child instead of an employer’s child.

And like many nannies, Sarah often spends more time with a child in her care and is more attentive to the child’s needs than the child’s biological parents. As such, Bobo admires Sarah as a mother-like figure and craves Sarah’s approval. Bobo asks questions that Bobo usually answers. Bobo doesn’t really know it, but the type of respect that Bobo has for Sarah is considered taboo by her parents and other racists who think like Bobo’s parents.

Still, the movie shows how racial suspicions go both ways. Jacob is uncomfortable with Sarah being seen with Bobo in public when Sarah is taking care of Bobo. Jacob warns Sarah: “It’s dangerous with this election. Eyes are watching you from up in the hills. Which one of us is on the side of Mugabe? And who is on the side of the whites and their bishop [Muzorewa]? Being seen with this child makes you look like a collaborator.”

Sarah is no pushover though. A scene later in the movie shows Bobo spending time with some children of the Fuller family’s employees. Bobo acts bossy toward the children, but Sarah scolds her and says that Bobo has no right to talk to the other children that way. Would Sarah have told Bobo this in front of Bobo’s parents? Probably not. But it’s an example of Bobo learning that she doesn’t have a right to treat all black people as if they’re her servants.

And although Bobo has been taught that black Africans are uncouth, and white people are role models, the movie shows time and again that Bobo’s parents and their hard-partying friends are neglectful parents who often care more about getting drunk than the well-being of their children. The movie has several scenes of Bobo’s parents at house parties where the underage children are unsupervised and get into all sorts of mischief. When Bobo smokes cigarettes, Sarah is the only one who notices and tells her to stop.

Although Bobo’s parents and their friends have racial superiority attitudes, these adults are the one who act the worst. There’s a scene where drunken family friend named Anton (played by Albert Pretorius) makes a sexual pass at Nicola, even though they are both married. And when he doesn’t get his way with her, Anton makes a sexually suggestive advance at Vanessa when he puts his thumb in her mouth. Vanessa is mortified and doesn’t say anything about it. Bobo has witnessed this inappropriate touching and later tells her parents about it. The parents’ response is not surprising.

There are no boarding schools for Alexandra “Bobo” Fuller in this movie. In this movie, Bobo is allowed to run wild and do almost anything she pleases, including smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and shoot guns. Bobo is often disheveled and dirty. Bobo is not a bad child, but she’s a very undisciplined child who can’t always be watched or controlled by a nanny who doesn’t live in the same household. By contrast, the black African children in the movie are obedient, don’t cause trouble, and have good hygiene.

“Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” isn’t just about how racial tensions and political upheaval are affecting the Fuller family. Inside the family, there are many issues. Nicola has an undiagnosed mental illness that looks a lot like bipolar disorder. She’s addicted to alcohol and becomes increasingly erratic and unstable.

Her husband Tim is mostly passive in dealing with Nicola’s health issues. However, he and Nicola vehemently disagree about what they should do if Mugabe becomes Zimbabwe’s prime minister. Tim thinks the family should move to another country. Nicola thinks they should stay and fight for their land. Over time, Nicola starts ranting about how white people need to fight back with violence.

The family has other issues. The youngest child of Nicola and Tim was a daughter named Olivia (played by Lexey Anne Wild and Lylah Rose Wild), who died when she was a toddler. A flashback scene show exactly what happened and why Bobo has also been deeply affected by this death. Nicola’s father also has dementia and is non-verbal, which Nicola has trouble coping with and doesn’t like to talk about it.

“Don’t Let’s Go the Dogs Tonight” sometimes gets scattered and unfocused on how much it wants to be about race relations and how much it wants to be about a child dealing with a very troubled mother. Vanessa is a very underdeveloped character, even though Vanessa is very much present for most of the family drama. Tim isn’t sidelined as much as Vanessa is, but there’s not much that’s revealed about him either.

However flawed the movie is in some areas, Venter gives a standout performance as Bobo, who is playful, bratty, empathetic and opinionated—and who is learning about life on her own terms. Davidtz and Bali also give terrific performances as the two very different women who have the responsibility of taking care of Bobo. “Don’t Let’s Go the Dogs Tonight” is ultimately a unique and well-acted story about a daughter and the maternal figures in her life, as they navigate their identities in a racially divided nation.

Sony Pictures Classics released “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” in select U.S. cinemas on July 11, 2025.