At the start of the film, a busy neighborhood of Kakamega village has been shown where people can be seen enjoying themselves. A group comes on the stage for playing a drama. George Elibidi is the one narrating the play, he plans to go to Nairobi and tells how he met the love of his life, Martha. They soon got married and were blessed with four children: Petronila, Nite, Shiko, and Mshere. George tells us about the life of his brother Alphonse as well.
The daughters of George are seen sitting and chatting about boys. They’re discussing their love interests. Nite tells her sisters how her boyfriend Ken doesn’t kiss and hug her. When she demands a kiss from him, he denies it, and that's how they broke up. Mshere and Vinnie are in love and Petronila is with Pablo. Ken is asked by Pablo why he does so with Nite. It is then revealed that Ken thinks that he is HIV positive, and the reason behind his beliefs is that he has diarrhea and is losing weight. The man didn’t get tests done and still believes that he is affected by HIV.
Pablo takes Ken to VCT i.e., Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centre. Both these boys get tested and Pablo finds that he is the one who has HIV. Upon finding this, Pablo thinks that Petro is a prostitute and she is the one who gave him the disease. People start talking about how George’s family has HIV, and they start discriminating against them. George couldn’t tolerate this and left his family at a such crucial time.
In my opinion, The Dreams of Elibidi is an important film as it took it upon itself to educate the masses about HIV, and it also showed the various prevalent myths that people have in mind about the same. The thing that I liked most in the entire 74-minute film was how the youngsters were not hesitant to go to the testing centers. It showed how the youth is progressing with the right education and mindset. Various efforts done by the government of all countries have made our youth aware of HIV and reduced the prevalent myths.
HIV is not a communicable disease, contrary to what the characters in the film believed to be. If anyone is suffering from HIV then, don’t think that their mere touch will make you catch the disease. In the film, we saw how the girl’s whole family was thought of as suffering from HIV and the behavior their neighbors showed toward them.
Many topics like rape, HIV, and the stigmas related to it have been covered beautifully in the movie. Everything about the disease including how one contracts it, the testing centers, available treatments, and discrimination that the affected have to face have been shown. It is like an entire awareness campaign that the makers have done with the movie. The Dreams of Elibidi is informative and entertaining at the same time. It has good humor and good acting.
The scene which will make the audience go in complete shock is when a man rapes a virgin girl intending to transfer the “bug” i.e., the virus. This sick mentality possessed by some people endangers others' life as well.
There are some things that I’d like to discuss with our readers, me being a medical student myself. First of all, it is not just sexual contact that spreads HIV. There are various other routes also like blood transfusions, sharing needles (done by drug abusers), and vertical transmission i.e., from mother to child at the time of pregnancy. If you think that you’ve come in contact with an infected person, go to your nearest center which will run proper tests and if found necessary will start you on medications. Time is of the essence in this disease.
The chances of contracting a disease sexually are reduced by a great proportion when condoms are used during sexual acts. Even if a mother has HIV, it's not necessary that her child will get the disease as today we have drugs that can stop that from happening.
HIV can not be treated, but it can be prevented by making people aware. There’s a thing said in the movie about ARVs, which to the knowledge of our readers are anti-retroviral drugs. These drugs don’t treat the disease but help in improving the quality of life of the affected.
Final Score – [7.5/10]
Reviewed by - Riya Singh
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Publisher at Midgard Times