HIV positive cast star in Pili, the film shining a light on the struggles of Tanzanian women living with HIV

An academic and a director have teamed up to produce a moving feature-length film highlighting the everyday struggles of women living with HIV in Tanzania, in which two thirds of the cast are HIV positive. 

The East-African nation has made major inroads in tackling the HIV epidemic over the last decade, with an extensive roll out of free antiretroviral treatment, but 1.5 million Tanzanians still live with the disease. 

The burden is highest among women, with 5.8 per cent of those over 15 infected with HIV - compared to 3.6 per cent of men. In a country with significant gender inequality, women are more likely to have older partners and get married at a younger age - and often do not have education or agency to insist on safe sex. 

Armed with a shoestring budget of £75,000 and only one trained actor, politics and global health academic Dr Sophie Harman and director Leanne Welham co-produced the feature length film, which shines a spotlight on challenges faced by women living with the disease.

“It’s a story I’ve been wanting to tell for ten years,” said Dr Harman of Queen Mary University. “The majority of people living with HIV are women, and their stories are not heard outside of Tanzania.

"This film is needed because we are getting to a point of complacency, but if you listen to the stories of women, it’s clear that stigma is not a thing of the past,” she added.  

The film is set in the small village of Miono in the north east of the country and more than 65 per cent of the cast are HIV positive.

Filmed in Swahili, the story follows Pili, played by Bello Rashid, a young woman whose husband refused to be tested for HIV following her diagnosis - instead leaving her alone to provide for two young children.

Pili, fearful of sharing her HIV-positive status with friends, struggles to raise enough money to open a market kiosk while also looking after her children and her health.

The story, which was written following interviews with over 80 women about their experiences, follows the tough choices Pili is forced to make as she tries to improve her life. 

“We wanted the film to represent the women,” said Ms Welham. “We cast it from the women we met and took the written story back to the community. It would have been absolutely impossible to make the film without their support.”

The reception in Miono has been hugely positive - when Dr Harman and Ms Welham set up a mobile cinema in the secondary school, 500 people from the village went to see it. 

“At some parts there was nervous laughter, at others excitement and cheering at seeing their friends on screen”, said Dr Harman, explaining that the US Embassy in Tanzania is going to show Pili in Dar es Salaam and are hoping to take it on tour to HIV hotspots. 

All profits from the film, which is being screened in London this week and will be released on DVD in late November, go back to the communities involved.

“This film was really part of an effort to keep HIV on the agenda,” Dr Harman added. “We mustn’t get complacent. If somebody like Pili sees it, I hope that they know they are not alone.”

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