It’s 1980 in Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, and a war rages, while a high-stakes election could change this country forever. For 7-year-old Bobo (Lexi Venter), life continues on at her white English family’s rural farm, where she’s grown accustomed to their military escorts for trips to town, and that she’s not allowed in her parents’ bedroom at night, lest they mistake her for a “terrorist” and shoot her.

Through the eyes of a child, the most complex conflicts can be reduced to their core truths, lyrically expressed in “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight,” the directorial debut of acclaimed American-South African actress Embeth Davidtz, who also adapted the source material, a 2001 memoir by British-Zimbabwean writer Alexandra Fuller. Davidtz pulls triple duty, co-starring as Bobo's mother Nicola.

Bobo invites us into her world via matter-of-fact narration, explaining things how she sees it: colonialism, war, race and African culture out of the mouths of babes. From this perspective, the heated politics and civil unrest of this time are tempered, though not softened, as she tries to make sense of the world around her, simplifying and flattening into binaries; this or that. “Are we African or English?” “Are we racist? I heard it on the radio.”

Our lens into this world, Bobo is the planet around which “Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” revolves, embodied with wild abandon by Venter, whom Davidtz found when she put out a call for a free-spirited young girl, untrained in acting.

Davidtz has captured something like lightning in a bottle with Venter’s performance of pure, feral girlhood. As Bobo, she is a whirling dervish, entirely unencumbered by self-consciousness on screen thanks to Davidtz’s canny direction. She chokes on ice, and picks a wedgie. She asks inappropriate questions and is perfectly confident roaming the sprawling family farm, on horseback or motorbike, always barefoot. She may be often dirty and unkempt, but she composes herself with proper English manners when necessary. She is simultaneously innocent and knowing.

Davidtz carefully stitches together the performance through editing and voice-over, maintaining Venter’s authentic spirit. Bobo switches from know-it-all explanations to whispered incantations, superstitious wishes from a child. “If you love me you’ll turn around” she whispers at the sight of her father’s (Rob van Vuuren) retreating back, as he heads off for a military tour (though the details are never quite clear — Bobo is lightly neglected by her parents).

The one person who does pay attention to her is Sarah (Zikhona Bali), one of their African servants. She is tender, loving and playful, telling her stories of African mythology. Bobo’s own mother drinks late into the night, and frequently passes out in a silky negligee, clutching a machine gun.

“Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight” captures the complex dynamics of being a white minority, a strange social, cultural and political place to inhabit. Bobo feels African because this is her home, what she knows best. She loves Sarah and embraces her culture. But she also apes her own mother’s haughty, entitled “lady of the manor” ways. Nicola’s behavior is only made more ridiculous by their hardscrabble and dangerous existence in the bush — they’re certainly not living a life of luxury.

Davidtz, who directs the film with striking beauty and a visceral immediacy, is also gripping in her performance as Nicola, battling alcoholism and grief. As filmmaker, Davidtz parcels out information about the family’s past trauma like a repressed memory stubbornly surfacing, bobbing to the top of their consciousness.

Their farm is Bobo’s whole world, but questions of property ownership and colonialism are at the heart of this conflict, both political and personal. Jacob (Fumani Shilubana), one of their employees, talks about how the farm used to be the land of his people, where his ancestors are buried, from whom he seeks solace and guidance. His connection to this place is ancient and spiritual, not legal or financial.

And yet we find that Nicola has a spiritual connection to this land as well. Her own dreams are intertwined with this place; she has buried her own loved ones in this soil. As the communist leader Robert Mugabe is elected, his declarations empower Africans to take up residence on the farmland, and her imperialist grasp slips, the beginning of the end for this family here.

Davidtz saw cultural similarities in this story to her own childhood in South Africa, and with this astonishing cinematic jewel, presents a sensorially transporting snapshot of this place in time — the family, racial and political dynamics, and how a child might synthesize it all. Through Fuller’s story, Davidtz saw herself, and in adaptation, she distills the universal truths derived from its specificity.

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'DON’T LET’S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT'

4 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: R (for violent/bloody images, language, sexual assault, and some underage smoking/drinking)

Running time: 1:38

How to watch: In theaters July 11

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