Pili lives in rural Tanzania, working the fields for less than $1 a day to feed her two children and struggling to manage her HIV-positive status in secret. When she is offered the chance to rent a sought-after market-stall, Pili is desperate to have it. But with only two days to get the deposit together, Pili is forced to make increasingly difficult decisions with ever-deepening consequences. How much will she risk to change her life?
필리, Пили
France
Dinard Film Festival
UK
Global Health Film Festival
UK
East End Film Festival
UK
UK12A
Ireland12
France
Ireland
UK
A very thoughtful lead performance helps make this story of struggle amd perseverance pretty easy to connect with. Heartbreakingly authentic as it follows a woman attempting to build a better life for herself and her family against seemingly insurmountable odds in rural Tanzania. Beautifully shot and with a solid supporting cast, Leanne Welham additionally provides solid direction. The specter/stigma of HIV hangs heavily over the film and Pili's story. For a film that can be pretty bleak it does take an even darker turn at the end that I wasn't a huge fan of, but I unfortunately can't say that it wasn't realistic.
one of the best films i've seen so far from africa, pili is in part a story about hope for a better life, and in part a story of deciding what you are willing to do to achieve your goals. bello rashid gives a subtly touching performance, and the portrayal of life in rural tanzania - especially with the stigma of a certain illness that our titular character is struggling with - is an honest and daring directorial debut. a plot point at the ending takes away from the story for me a little bit, but it's an evocative and sensitive film nonetheless. pili is definitely worth your time.
Found this rather frustrating as Pili encountered almost every barrier possible, one after the other. It may be that it had more of an impact because I'm sensitive to deadlines so it made me permanently stressed out. But it was a little predictable and the set up made it seem like Pili was very unlucky rather than her situation being complex.
There were a few scenes of Pili with friends and with her children that it would have been nice to have more of; to show her life wasn't just relentless struggle. These scenes were really strong and gave more insight into her personality and humour. Her opening up about having HIV was really powerful too. But too much of the film was spent arranging meetings, getting buses and the mechanics of the story rather than the meaning and impact of it on our protagonist.
I liked this one a lot. The story was captivating, and I thought the lead performance was excellent and really grounded. I think they captured something really unique by telling a story set in this time and place.
Sometimes a film just has to be. Pili is one of those films. It barely amounts to more than a document of one woman's life in Tanzania but that is a window we rarely see opened.
It is not a happy film (think the Dardenne brothers but in East Africa), but there are moments of levity to offset the hardship. Whether the balance is enough to sustain audiences as the hardships pile on heavy is another question.
There's an honesty here that is hard to dismiss. The roster of non-actors are never less than believable and the spiral of the narrative never over-reaches. For the most part, men are absent (bonus), though when they do arrive they manage to deliver…
Leanne Welham’s BAFTA-nominated drama starring Bello Rashid as a Tanzanian woman with HIV who receives an offer that could transform her life. In Swahili with English subtitles.
The story concerns Pili (Bello Rashid) who is employed in the fields in pastoral Tanzania, finding it hard to keep her HIV-positive status hidden. When she is presented with the opportunity to rent a market stall, Pili is frantic to take the chance to change her life, but it comes at a heavy price.
Bello Rashid gives a very good performance in her role as the title character Pili, the young Tanzanian woman with an awful illness whose attempts to change her life are going to be harder than she thought.
Elsewhere, there…
i was so invested in this, a wonderful and heartbreaking film wow
March around the world: Tanzania
My first film from there. This is a very grim movie, and I was sometimes a bit bored because the film moves at a slow, strolling pace. However, it portrays a realistic picture of an HIV-positive woman's life in rural Tanzania, and Pili's determination can only be commended. Bello Rashid gave a really understated but powerful performance as Pili. Also, as the poster shows, she has a very striking face.
Around the Letterboxd World - Year 4 [2023] |
United Republic of Tanzania 🇹🇿
Leanne Welham’s BAFTA-nominated feature of a young Tanzanian woman’s struggling to hide her HIV-positive status working in the fields, given the chance to rent a market stall and better hers and her children’s lives is a remarkable production with a powerful central performance by Bello Rashid in a heartbreaking endeavour.
I had no idea this was an ensemble of non-actors. Fantastic performances from all of them!
I think this was such a nicely done slice of life for someone living with HIV/AIDS whilst trying to better their lives for themselves and their kids. It covered it in a variety of ways in doing so too.
It looked at the access and challenges when it comes to seeking medical help. This is in terms of dealings with the hospitals, with avoiding being discovered, with paying for medicine whilst managing other important things (such as schooling or business) and so on.
The biggest matter at hand is her balancing her health with her business aspirations. I think that a lot of people…
We meet Pili walking to work where she plows bone-dry fields, the sweat dripping down her back, and her steady footsteps mirroring the monotony of her daily life. She is a single mother to two children, her husband (never shown) has left her once she told him that she is HIV positive, a fact she keeps from her gossiping neighbours. Pili dreams of making a better life for herself and her children by earning enough money to set up a stall selling beauty products. One day, her opportunity arises. However, in a similar but dead serious vein to the Coen’s A SERIOUS MAN, various bureaucratic and personal barriers get in her way. PILI is a bleak film in many ways,…
movies like these remind me i need to become successful to be able to make a difference in the world.
on another note, this movie was so good, the videography, the story, it was so well captured , i love movies that literally seem like real life but also regarding the bigger issues in this, health is such a necessity , a basic right yet women in the global south are suffering and the world is silent, it’s so heartbreaking and omg the ending 💔💔💔💔i felt so bad for her but at the same time i admired her , throughout the movie she fought so much , all she wanted was a better life for her and her family and she sacrificed herself for it, women are so powerful and resilient i might cry
also can i just say my disso supervisor is so talented and cool , she’s the one who produced this , my role model fr
