Susan Granger’s review of “He Named Me Malala” (Fox Searchlight)
Davis Guggenheim’s somewhat disjointed documentary profiles Malala Yousafzai, the charismatic Pakistani teenager, whose impassioned crusade for girls’ education nearly left her a martyr when – in 2012 – a Taliban gunman shot her in the face.
The film opens with Jason Carpenter’s pastel storybook animation, depicting Malali of Maiwand, a 19th century freedom fighter who led her Pashtun countrymen on the battlefield against invading British forces in Afghanistan. On-camera, activist/educator Ziauddin Yousafzai refers to his daughter and her predecessor as two bodies with the same soul.
So he was not surprised when young Malala protested on a BBC blog and elsewhere when the Taliban burned books and videos in their village in the Swat Valley of Pakistan, decreeing that Muslim girls could only get a religious education.
Miraculously, Malala survived the assassination attempt and was transported to the U.K. in a medically-induced coma. After enduring a series of surgeries, Malala awoke to find the left side of her face paralyzed, leaving her with a lopsided smile.
Undaunted, Malala not only recovered and wrote her memoir (“I Am Malala”) but also delivered an eloquent, pro-education speech at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. She subsequently won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the youngest person to do so.
“It is so hard to get things done in this world,” she says, “but you have to continue – and never give up.”
Utilizing a rather confusing, non-linear format, director Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth,” “Waiting for Superman”) focuses on the father/daughter bond, along with fate and predestination, portraying Malala as a Joan of Arc/Anne Frank composite, particularly when she’s in Nigeria with the families of kidnapped girls and with refugees on the Syrian border.
Informal, behind-the-scenes glimpses of Malala and her family at home in Birmingham, England, are few and far between but they’re certainly the most memorable, particularly when she’s with her impish, engaging younger brothers and giggling about her favorite cricketers.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “He Named Me Malala” is an uplifting, inspirational 7, as Ms. Yousafzai continues to resist repression.
