Pili movie review: the trials of women are many, and universal

Pili lives in rural Tanzania and struggles to support her two young children, since her husband left them, as a daily farm laborer. But then the opportunity she has been waiting for pops up: a market kiosk in her small village comes vacant, and if she can scrape together the fee its owner is asking, she can start her own business — she wants to sell beauty products — and can finally get herself and her family on a solid financial footing. It’s a big if … and it will demand that she make some extraordinarily difficult decisions, ones that could have life-altering repercussions in all sorts of ways.

This feature directorial debut from British filmmaker Leanne Welham, which she wrote with Sophie Harman, is wholly remarkable. Pili was shot in the village where it is set, utilizing mostly nonprofessional actors, telling a story that is only just barely fictionalized from their own lives. Bello Rashid, as Pili, gives the film a quiet yet rock-solid center: there hasn’t been a movie like this one before, showcasing the determination, the dignity, and the indomitable spirit of the women of East Africa, and Rashid presents a proud portrait. Unexpected angles on Pili’s life bring us a new understanding of the challenges women like her face. She is HIV+, for one big thing, and through Pili we discover that although a lot of support is available to her — free buses to free clinics, free drugs — social stigma is still a huge impediment to treatment. Pili’s anitvirals ran out a month ago, and because she is so dedicated to keeping her status private, getting them refilled secretly can be difficult. So now she also has to cope with not feeling well, and knowing that she won’t feel better — unless it’s already too late — until she can get a new supply of her medicine.

As is so often the case when we get an intimate look at the lives of others, even those who are very different from us, we see much that is familiar — which is cheering even when the familiarities are often depressing ones. The barriers Pili faces and the hoops she is forced to jump through in order to — maybe — achieve just the first tiny step on a long path to a very modest idea of success? They are immense… and women everywhere will recognize them, from the juggling of work and child care to the jealousy of those who begrudge her even the smallest helping hand. There is terrible suspense along Pili’s journey here, as we fear for what new obstacle is going to appear before here (there are so many). But there is also hope, in the support of her friends and in her own resilience. Even if her resilience is mostly a lack of other options for improving her lot in life. She will not be deterred, and she is a hero for it. An exhausted, dejected hero, but a hero nevertheless.

Pili screens in London at ICA Cinema on Friday, October 12th, and Saturday, October 13th, only; at Lexi Cinema on Monday, October 15th, only, followed by a Q&A with Leanne Welham and Sophie Harman; and at Crouch End Art House all week, with a Q&A with Welham and Harman on Thursday, October 18th. It also screens in Manchester at Home all week.

Click here for my ranking of this and 2018’s other theatrical releases.