Whose Zimbabwe is it anyway?

Beautifully made and emotionally rich, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight exposes the uneasy truth of who gets to tell Zimbabwe's story

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Zimbabwe's struggle is being shot in South Africa in the aftermath of Mugabe’s infamous farm invasions (known by some as the Third Chimurenga).

The detailed production design, stunning cinematography and complex storytelling of a very young person’s observation of her family’s hidden griefs, their complex relationships with their black workers, and the deluded grandeur of their white poverty surpasses any fiction feature made in Zimbabwe to date.

Bobo unwittingly puts her black nanny at risk of attack as a collaborator while imitating her mother’s airs and graces, but she also transcends the constructs of race with the innocence and clarity that only a child can, giving hope for the country’s promising and hard-won freedom. The acting is superb across the board, the benefits of having an experienced actress as a director clear.

There’s only one blindspot to Davidtz’ work: the black South African actors are excellent, but are clearly... South African, with accents and mannerisms that are alien to black Zimbabweans. When they speak the Shona language, it is indecipherable as Shona, making the subtitles necessary for even native speakers. In such an authentically detailed production, this came as a shocking disappointment.