Olimbi – Mother Courage is a hybrid feature documentary blending intimate testimony, archival footage, and theatrical reconstruction. After her husband’s death in 2003, Olimbi Hoxhaj learned that she and three of her four children were HIV positive in Albania, where treatment did not exist. Confronting stigma, institutional neglect, and patriarchal silence, she transformed personal loss into public action. The film follows the creation of a theatre play in which Olimbi and her children act as co-authors, guiding actors through reenactments of their past. As theatre becomes a space of memory and healing, the film reveals how one mother’s courage reshaped public awareness and helped secure treatment for thousands.

The only way to end AIDS is to: TEST! TREAT! PREVENT! Cuts to global HIV funding, rising misinformation, and declining testing rates threaten hard‑won gains and the goal of ending AIDS by 2030. Olimbi: Mother Courage reframes HIV beyond the persistent myth of it being a disease of one community and transforms shame into courage. The world lost around 630,000 lives due to AIDS-related illnesses in 2024. Silence = death and we can't turn a blind eye to those who are suffering, especially when effective treatment exists.