Chapeau to Embeth Davidtz, the US-born, South Africa-raised actress who played Miss Honey in the Nineties Matilda and Ren\u00e9e Zellweger\u2019s love rival in Bridget Jones\u2019s Diary, and here delivers a directorial debut of uncommon ambition. It\u2019s set in Rhodesia, soon to be Zimbabwe, in early 1980, where a community of bigoted and heavily armed white farmers drink themselves into seedy oblivion while awaiting an imminent election win for Robert Mugabe and fearing the bloody wrath of militant guerillas. This is not, in short, the colonial exoticism of White Mischief or Richard E Grant\u2019s Wah-Wah. It is, instead, a place of infectious moral decay that is bleak, decrepit and grimy.<\/p>\n
No one is more grimy than the white child protagonist Bobo, played by the local actress Lexi Venter (who was seven at the time of shooting) in a fearsomely energetic turn. Bobo is a filth-covered portrait of both freedom and neglect, and is consistently captured smoking stolen cigarettes, drinking beer, swearing, riding a mini motorbike and cruelly threatening African workers with, \u201cHey! My dad bought this farm with his own money. I could fire you if I wanted!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n Bobo is the daughter of a soldier and absentee father, Tim Fuller (Rob Van Vuuren), and a brittle alcoholic mother, Nicola (Davidtz). Most of the film, adapted by Davidtz from Alexandra Fuller\u2019s memoir, traces the gradual implosion of the Fuller family in the face of wholesale political upheavals.<\/p>\n There\u2019s much to admire, including Venter\u2019s performance, Davidtz\u2019s artful framing (the film was shot outside of Johannesburg) and her refusal to sympathise or ennoble the Fullers \u2014 these are complicated characters, but they\u2019re also hard work. The final act is less effective, especially when Nicola spirals into brandy-addled mania, and it all starts to get very Tennessee Williams, like Blanche DuBois has been beamed into colonial Rhodesia with a silken nightdress and a visceral hatred of racial equality. Still, it\u2019s always compelling, and a powerful first feature. Two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman<\/p>\n Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit thetimes.com\/timesplus<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments and follow @timesculture<\/a> to read the latest reviews<\/p>\n
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15, 99min
In cinemas<\/p>\n