HE NAMED ME MALALA – The Review

This new documentary feature centers around the life of one very influential person. Unlike AMY from earlier in the year, this is not a retrospective of an ended life. This young lady continues to work and inspire. It’s that “fly on the wall” profile of someone at the height of their influence, as acclaim and fame swirl about them. The doc MADONNA: TRUTH OR DARE immediately comes to mind. Well, yes this young lady is famous, but she is not from the entertainment world like those doc subjects. Oh, I did mention that she is young, just a couple of months past her eighteenth birthday. Well, almost a year ago to the day she became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. And in her less than two decades, she’s done more than most people at three or four times her age. In this engaging new film, we go behind the magazine covers, the awards, and speeches. Oscar-winning documentarian Davis Guggenhiem gives us an intimate glimpse of the remarkable Ms. Yousafzai in HE NAMED ME MALALA.

The title’s he refers to her father Ziauddin. In the film’s animated prologue, we’re told the story behind that name:  that of the inspiring Afghan poetess/warrior, Malalai of Maiwand. The film shifts between the current hectic days as Malala tries to balance school in her new British home as she travels the globe to tell her inspiring story while pressing world leaders into ending warfare and devoting their efforts into education for all people, and the story of her beloved homeland and the brutal attack that forced them out. She’s definitely her father’s daughter, as we see them travel as a team to the UN, different TV talk shows, a young girls’ school in Nigeria, and to a refugee camp on the Syrian border. Malala’s two younger brothers seem to have adjusted well to the new surroundings, while mother Tor Pekai has a more difficult time,  preferring to be out of the spotlight. More animation tells of their life back in northwestern Pakistan’s Swat Valley and how father set up a school. Snapshots show Malala and her brothers cavorting around the village full of rolling hills (and a nice waterfall). The idyllic life seems to come to an end with the arrival of the Taliban. News footage shows us the heavily armed men taking over, burning books, and banning anything from the outside world. We hear the audio tapes that the Mullah blares out of loudspeakers. When the schools are bombed, Malala speaks out via some BBC reporters. And when she reveals her name, we get a hazy, sun-drenched reenactment of the gunman’s attempted assignation of her on a school bus. This is followed by her time at different hospitals, the arduous rehab sessions, and her return to her cause.

Davis Guggenheim (AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, WAITING FOR ‘SUPERMAN’) makes the most of the intimate access to the whole family. We get the one on one interviews along with many intimate moments such as Tor’s shopping trek and Malala’s time at school (she even shows us some of her graded papers). They’re fascinating folks, so the director really had to know when to just get out of the way, although occasionally we’ll hear Davis on the sidelines or, from behind the camera, quizzing his subjects. His main strength in the film is balancing the big moments with the small. We see Malala playfully teasing her brothers, even as she googles some crushes (she into cricket more for the players than the sport), which reminds us that she’s just like most teenagers. But then there’s the incredible speeches she delivers and we’re stunned at her ability to communicate. The sweet moments never take away from the power of her eloquence. This makes Davis’s decision to save the horrifying details of her injury an insightful choice. In a way, it’s as if our own daughter or kid sister were viciously struck down. The simple, subtle score by Thomas Newman never overpowers the images, the best of which may be the judicious of animation (a great choice over re-stagings). The flowing, pastel-like art helps give the Pakistan back stories a dream-like, almost fairy tale quality. Kudos to animation designer Jason Carpenter and his whole talented team. But the biggest praise must go the entire Yousafzai family for letting us into their world and giving everywhere a chance to see how one young girl’s bravery and determination is helping to change the planet.

4 Out of 5