Latest news with #AlexandraFuller
News24
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- News24
Embeth Davidtz's Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is a well-crafted drama
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.
TimesLIVE
24-07-2025
- Entertainment
- TimesLIVE
Movies that are definitely not going to the dogs
Spotlight is our bite-sized entertainment snapshot featuring new releases in South Africa, exclusive film trailers and more. New episodes come out every Thursday on Sunday Times Lifestyle, Sowetan Entertainment and YouTube, plus you can follow Spotlight on Facebook. Spotlight this week takes a closer look at the latest Marvel reboot and two South African films shining bright at the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF). Based on Alexandra Fuller's best-selling memoir, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight depicts eight-year-old Bobo's life on her family's Rhodesian farm during the 1970s Bush War's final stages and Robert Mugabe's rise to power. Directed and adapted by Embeth Davidtz (Matilda, Schindler's List), and with high audience and critical acclaim, the film stars talented newcomer Lexi Venter, Zikhona Bali and Rob van Vuuren. At cinemas and at DIFF. The Fantastic family face a daunting challenge as they defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic herald, Silver Surfer. T he Fantastic Four: First Steps is directed by Matt Shakman (2011 Game of Thrones) and the film features Hollywood's finest including Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn in this very personal battle. At cinemas. Audiences can look forward to a thorough comedy indulgence in a heartfelt story where sardines meet pageantry in quirky local big screen movie Lucky Fish. A small sardine-canning company runs into financial problems and turn to desperate measures to save the company by any means — a very unconventional beauty contest. Directed by Joshua Rous and starring Jack Devnarain, Mayuri Naidu and Meren Reddy, Lucky Fish is at cinemas and the DIFF. For full interviews, breaking news, trailers and clips visit our Spotlight Facebook page. See you at the movies. Presenter Collette Prince is styled and dressed by Claris by Gerrit Pienaar when attending premieres and special events. Facebook @Claris by Gerrit Pienaar/Instagram: gerritpienaardesigns. Competition and giveaways Name the ravenous space god in T he Fantastic Four: First Steps, now showing at cinemas nationwide. For full competition details and the questions, go to the Spotlight SA Facebook page and DM your answers and contact details by July 30. Terms and conditions apply. Winners will be drawn randomly and notified by SMS after the competition has closed. Entrants' personal details will not be retained for marketing purposes. Winners have to provide proof of age (ID/driving licence) and cover their own travel and accommodation expenses. By entering, participants agree to have their names published on TimesLIVE, SowetanLIVE and Spotlight SA on Facebook. Employees of Ar ena Holdings and their family members are not eligible to enter.
Yahoo
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Matilda''s Embeth Davidtz Says Her Son Once Threated to Tell Fans She's ‘Nothing' Like Miss Honey (Exclusive)
Embeth Davidtz is excited for her young adult children to see the fruits of her labor The mom of two recalls balancing years of raising her two kids while also working on the screenplay for her directorial debut, based on the novel by Alexandra Fuller Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight directed by Davidtz is in theaters nowEmbeth Davidtz is excited to see her family proud of her hard work. Speaking with PEOPLE about Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, her directorial and screenwriting debut, the actress talked about the journey bringing this movie to audiences, which ran concurrently to her own journey as a mom of two — son Dylan and daughter Charlotte. "It's great because there was a moment in time when the kids were really little and people would say anything about Matilda, I'd see them sort of get thrilled that my mom is Miss Honey or something. But occasionally my son would sort of mutter, 'You're nothing like Miss Honey,' " she says, referring to her beloved role in the 1996 adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel. "If I'd say, 'You are in a timeout,' or consequences for behavior or whatever, he'd go, 'You're so mean. And the next time someone comes up and tells me that they love you as Miss Honey, I'm going to tell them that you're nothing like her,' " she continues. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Davidtz, 59, recalls a time when work was moving away from Los Angeles, making it harder for her to go after certain acting jobs. "My son, again at a somewhat rebellious stage, he'd go, 'Well what do you do all day?' And I do think I felt, there were a couple of years when they were teenagers where I thought, 'I want my kids to see me working,' " she shared. is now available in the Apple App Store! Download it now for the most binge-worthy celeb content, exclusive video clips, astrology updates and more! "And when I'd be sitting writing, because it took a long time to write this, I think they might've thought I was just on YouTube or whatever they do on their computers. But I really wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote it again," the working mom explains. Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight, based on the memoir by Alexandra Fuller, tells the story of apartheid South Africa through the eyes of 8-year-old Bobo, who tries to understand the harsh realities of growing up amidst familial strife and the ongoing racial conflict. In addition to writing and directing the adaptation, Davidtz also stars as Nicola Fuller. "I did many, many drafts of it. And then, when this happened, as my son left for college and my daughter was in her final year of college, they came to see the movie. I mean, it's sort of the fantasy that every parent has that your kids then go, 'Oh my God, that's what you were doing,' " she says. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Davidtz adds that it was "lovely on many, many levels" to see her children understand what she's worked toward. "It's great for women to have their kids see that they have a purpose and do work. And a lot of moms — I feel like the hardest working moms I know — are the ones who are being moms, let alone the ones who have jobs and are being moms," she continues. "I wanted my kids to know that I had done something meaningful outside of just being their mother." Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight is in theaters now. Read the original article on People
Associated Press
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Movie Review: War, through one child's extraordinary eyes, in 'Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight'
'Are we racists?' That's the blunt question posed by Bobo, a white girl living on a farm in Africa, to her horrified (and defensive) mother. There are so many ways this three-word line reading could land wrongly — or just seem forced or mannered. But it feels thoroughly organic when voiced by Lexi Venter, an extraordinary first-time actor who gives, at age 7, one of the more compelling child performances in recent memory in 'Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight.' It's a performance that was seeded, watered and nurtured by Embeth Davidtz, an extraordinary actor herself who wrote, directed and stars in this adaptation of Alexandra Fuller's admired 2001 memoir. One imagines Davidtz, in her triple role (and as a first-time director), had hundreds upon hundreds of decisions to make. Her most important, though, was finding and casting this youngster possessed of a wild nature, a mop of unruly hair and a face like a broad canvas waiting to be painted. The movie, which chronicles one family's life in the turbulent, waning days of white rule in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia), was not always going to be narrated by a child. Davidtz's first attempt at adapting the memoir, told in third person, was too remote, she herself has said. Then she zoomed in on the idea of telling the tale uniquely from Bobo's perspective. Davidtz, who spent much of her childhood in South Africa, was drawn to the project because it recalled her own experience growing up in a world where racial inequality and violence were everywhere, but none of the adult explanations made much sense. The director's own family life also included, like the Fuller family's, mental illness and alcoholism; she has said that neither the outside world nor home life felt safe. And that's how it is for Bobo, 8 years old when we meet her, the younger of two daughters of Nicola and Tim Fuller. We will soon learn that another daughter died as a toddler in a tragic drowning — one of the reasons Nicola (Davidtz) is so emotionally tied to the family farm, as conveyed in one particularly brutal scene brimming with rage. She may not be native to the land, but her offspring is buried in its soil. We begin with Bobo explaining how she's afraid to go alone to pee in the night. 'Terrorists,' as they've been described by the adults, might lurk anywhere, even on the way to the bathroom, carrying a gun or knife or spear. But imaginary threats are accompanied by real ones. During the day, a trip into town with her mother necessitates an escort vehicle. 'I really hope we don't die in an ambush today,' Bobo says casually to an armed guard. This is a child who helps her Dad pack his ammo at breakfast. The film, shot in South Africa, is set in the days before and after the 1980 parliamentary election — a crucial vote that will bring the Black majority to power in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe. Visiting her parents' home, Nicola patronizingly instructs their Black servants which candidate to support. At home, Nicola's desperation rages. She drinks bourbon by the bottle and sleeps with a huge gun. She doesn't spend much time with her daughters, which leaves Bobo plenty of time to hang out with the animals, ride her motorbike, and smoke cigarettes. Such habits earn Bobo the disapproval of her most valued friend, Sarah (Zikhona Bali, in a warm and nuanced performance), one of two adult servants who work on the farm. The other is Jacob (Fumani N. Shilubana), who warns Sarah that her relationship with Bobo is too publicly affectionate in these precarious times. Besides, he tells her, Bobo thinks of her as a 'stupid village girl.' But there is real affection between the two. Privately, they laugh and share stories. And Sarah, conscious of the risks, tries to be the attentive parent Bobo lacks. When she catches the girl, messy-haired and smudgy-faced, smoking — at age 7! — she scolds her. 'There's nothing wrong with me, I'm perfect!' Bobo replies, with the self-belief that comes from a childhood spent bossing around people like Sarah. You can direct moments like this, as Davidtz does expertly while somehow turning in a heartbreaking and increasingly unhinged performance of her own. But you can't manufacture lightning in a bottle — for example, the infectious joy Venter exudes, even while family is losing everything, singing a rowdy song about a stripper. Davidtz has said she searched far and wide to find her star, interviewing experienced child actors but not finding the 'feral' girl she needed. A Facebook search yielded Venter. Davidtz knew she was the right before even meeting her in person. Working with the girl three hours a day, she did not give her a script, but rather provided guidance and let her improvise. Nobody's perfect, though Bobo may think she is. But in Venter's performance, Davidtz has found something pretty close: a child actor who can carry an entire film and never seem like she's acting. Bobo's story has now been told; let's hope we see young Venter telling many more. 'Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight,' a Sony Pictures Classics release, has been rated R by the Motion Picture Association 'for violent/bloody images, language, sexual assault, and some underage smoking/drinking.' Running time: 98 minutes. Three stars out of four.
The Independent
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Embeth Davidtz drew on her childhood in Africa to adapt Alexandra Fuller's memoir
In 1974, when it seemed as though everyone was leaving South Africa, Embeth Davidtz's family was going back. Davidtz, a familiar presence in films and television for over 30 years with memorable roles in everything from 'Schindler's List' to ' Matilda,' was born in the United States to white, South African parents. When she was 8, they decided to return during a time of upheaval. Although the transition from 'innocent New Jersey' was hard, it was also a life-making, character- and imagination-building experience that she's still processing to this day. It's where she grew up. It's where she began acting. And it's where she'd return decades later to direct her first film, 'Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight,' a poetic and deeply personal adaptation of Alexandra Fuller's memoir about growing up during the Bush War in Zimbabwe, which was then Rhodesia. The film, which was widely praised at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals for its deft handling of complex themes and for the discovery of young newcomer Lexi Venter, opens Friday in limited release and expands nationwide July 18. 'The sun rises and sets on her writing,' Davidtz said in an interview with The Associated Press. 'If anything works, it's because of that memoir.' Becoming a director in her mid-50s Like so many people, especially those who lived in Africa in the 1970s and '80s, Davidtz devoured the book when it came out in 2001. But it would take more than 15 years to start seriously thinking about a film. Davidtz was refocusing after a little hiatus from acting: She'd survived breast cancer, raised children and was reflecting on parts of the book she loved, like Fuller's mother, a complex figure who struggled with trauma, alcohol and mental health. Davidtz, who is now 59, could have hardly predicted that this journey would lead to her writing, directing and producing her first feature as well. 'It felt like an imperative. It felt like a call,' she said. 'Once I dug my teeth into this, I felt like I couldn't not tell it.' The adaptation was slow-going but rewarding as Davidtz sprinkled some of her own stories and recollections in and the focus and structure of the story started to reveal itself. A pivotal revelation came four years in: It had to be from the child's point of view. 'I wasn't thinking about directing it, but at the end, I thought, you know what? I know what kind of shots I like. I know what sort of films I like. I could shoot this so simply,' she said. 'I need to take control of this because if I give it away to someone else, they're not going to tell the story that I'm trying to tell.' Finding a real child, not a child actor Davidtz was inspired by Terrence Malick films like 'Badlands' and 'Days of Heaven,' and the young girls' narrations, as well as Steven Spielberg's 'Empire of the Sun,' in which the end of a colonial regime is seen through the eyes of a young, white boy. 'People say, 'Oh, voiceover is so lazy,'' Davidtz said. 'But with a child you hear the quirks, you hear the offbeat, you hear what is wrong and the point of view that is skewed.' To play Bobo, the 8-year-old center of the film, Davidtz did not want a polished child actor. She wanted a real kid — a wild, little barefoot child, unspoiled and unsophisticated, who could maybe ride a motorbike. They eventually resorted to a Facebook post which led them to Venter, age 7. 'It was such a project of love and torture,' she said. 'It was so very hard to direct a 7-year-old who doesn't act.' Venter wasn't given a script. Davidtz instead played games, would give her some lines to say and then pour through the footage to find the most unfiltered moments to sprinkle into the film with the overlaying voiceover — a yawn, the picking of a wedgie, the things kids just do. 'I got a few gray hairs from that, but I love her. She's perfect,' Davidtz said. 'I worry that I have brought her into the world in a way that, cinematically, people will seek her out. I want her to be left to be the wild little creature that she is.' A South African cast and crew Filming took place in South Africa as Zimbabwe was too unstable and didn't have the infrastructure for film. And Davidtz filled the production with an entirely South African crew and cast, including Zikhona Bali as Sarah, who works for Bobo's family. Authenticity was paramount to Davidtz, from the music to the props and costumes, many of which she sourced herself, including a tattered silk robe she found on eBay. 'I remember someone saying, why don't you cast Morgan Freeman and bring him out. I said, 'No, it's got to be the real thing. It's got to be the real people,'' she said. 'Everyone carries the burden of what was there.' She's acutely aware that South Africa is not Zimbabwe and the dismantling of white rule differed in each, but there are similarities, too. It allowed her to ask questions about what happens to children surrounded by violence and generational racism through Bobo's lens. Though she worried about the optics of telling the story from a white child's point of view, she also didn't waver. 'That's what I remember and that's what I saw,' she said. 'There's a way of informing and telling what you saw that can teach. My connection to my past, as risky as it was, there was nothing to be lost.' Early audiences seem to be receiving it the way she hoped. For Davidtz, it hardly matters what happens now — awards, box office, whatever. 'I don't think I was ever the wisest person about what I would choose material-wise or business-wise,' she said. 'But it's so great that I, at almost 60, got this chance to do this. Whatever ends up happening, it got made. That's a miracle.'
