HE NAMED ME MALALA
A new documentary tells the story of the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban,
He Named Me Malala (out of 4) A documentary about Malala Yousafzai. Directed by Davis Guggenheim. 87 minutes. Opening Friday at Queensway, Eglinton Town Centre and Yonge & Dundas. PG
Fearless girls’ education advocate Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for insisting she and others had the right to go to school, is an inspiring subject for documentarian Davis Guggenheim (Oscar-winner for An Inconvenient Truth) with He Named Me Malala.
The “he” of the title is Malala’s father and inspiration, Ziauddin Yousafzai, admirable for raising his confident daughter within a fundamentalist society and despite the Taliban’s oppression, to be outspoken and strong, equal to males and fully deserving of an education.
But the doc often settles on his story, as if forthright Malala isn’t enough to hold our interest. And she certainly is.
In fact, it’s impossible not to feel affection for and protective of this young woman.
The doc is best when making the contrast between the remarkably poised Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the private teen.
Family photos of Malala as a child, before her smile was made lopsided by a Taliban gunshot, ribbing with her brothers around the family breakfast table, sharing anxiety about grades and fitting in at school, and giggles over photos of a Pakistani cricket star and tennis star Roger Federer all add lovely, personal notes.
Animation, re-enactments, repetition and an occasionally cloying style of storytelling, along with too much focus on her father, distract from the person who truly fascinates us: the brave, complex and compelling Malala.