X
- 2015
- PG-13
- Fox Searchlight Pictures
- 1 h 28 m
- 2015
- PG-13
- Fox Searchlight Pictures
- 1 h 28 m
Summary Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old (she turned 18 this July) was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry fro...
Directed By: Davis Guggenheim
Written By: Malala Yousafzai
- 2015
- PG-13
- Fox Searchlight Pictures
- 1 h 28 m
- 2015
- PG-13
- Fox Searchlight Pictures
- 1 h 28 m
He Named Me Malala
61
6.2
Where to Watch
Summary Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai was targeted by the Taliban and severely wounded by a gunshot when returning home on her school bus in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The then 15-year-old (she turned 18 this July) was singled out, along with her father, for advocating for girls’ education, and the attack on her sparked an outcry fro...
Directed By: Davis Guggenheim
Written By: Malala Yousafzai
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
61
50% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
46% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
61
50% Positive
13 Reviews
13 Reviews
46% Mixed
12 Reviews
12 Reviews
4% Negative
1 Review
1 Review
Davis Guggenheim’s latest documentary is a forceful and exquisitely made piece of advocacy journalism.
Though polished and image-conscious, offering too little insight into the physical and psychological trauma suffered in the bullet’s wake, the film is nevertheless moving without resorting to saccharine overtures.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 User Ratings
6.2
56% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
33% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
11% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 9 User Ratings
6.2
56% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
33% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
11% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
Witty documentary of a brave, determinated, unsinkable girl and her quest for equality in education. The footage is seasoned with beautiful animated sequences.
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Its hard not to like this movie, with Malala being such an incredible story and one that absolutely needed to be shown on the big screen, but with the weird transitions and unnecessary animation that seemed to make very real, adult issues into childish moments, the incredible true story could have quite easily been handled better.
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He Named Me Malala gets good marks as a laudatory piece about a genuinely valiant young woman, but it could use a modest dose of objectivity.
Guggenheim's film makes it clear that she is funny. She is humble. And, beneath her extraordinary sense of purpose, she is an ordinary kid.
While it’s hard to indict the movie for wanting to admire and honor this extraordinary girl, the movie loses its own inherent potency with a haphazard structure that jumps around far too much in time and a monotonous narrative about Malala overcoming oppressors to bravely speak out and inspire the world.
Grace and poise are certainly embedded in Yousafzai’s DNA, but there’s frustratingly little of her vulnerability or interiority in the film.
The effect of the film's animated sequences is to distance the viewer from real-life horrors--another misguided attempt at turning recent history into instant myth.
Director Davis Guggenheim’s chronicle of the life, so far, of Nobel Prize-winning Pakistani teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, from being shot by the Taliban for suggesting girls should be educated to moving to Britain and becoming a global ambassador for children’s education and gender equality.
If you’ve watched television over the last 3 years surely you’ve heard of Malala Yousafzai and her extraordinary story, ‘He Named Me Malala’ is an account of the teenager’s brief but eventful life so far, crafted for full dramatic effect.
But the heart of this movie is the confluence between director Davis Guggenheim’s convictions about the power of education, as seen in his recent work, and those of Malala and her father. The result is a central ethos for which our heroine risked her life, which essentially makes ‘He Named Me Malala’ a piece of advocacy filmmaking which straddles the line of positive propaganda.
The film is a mix of interviews and “candid” footage with Malala’s family about her uniquely independent upbringing in Pakistan’s Swat valley, the ominous arrival of the Taliban and all the events that followed. This is mixed with a lot of hand drawn animation that illustrates some key events and Yousafzai philosophical musings, all of which help to give ‘He Named Me Malala’ a rather mythical quality, and whether intentionally or not, depict Malala in a position of near sainthood.
The problem with making a documentary about the life of a teenager, despite her extraordinary circumstances, is that when you get past the well-established events into the actual person, it’s just not that interesting. There are cursory heart-warming attempts at digging beneath the persona but to no real avail, and despite the trauma this is a normal girl whose character is not yet fully formed and without a lifetime of experiences to merit a 90 minute documentary portrait.
There’s also no attempt to dig into the mythological aspect of her now iconic status and what that says about society, indeed the near prophetic origins of her name and the liberal use of animation here only make it more pronounced.
So what we’re left with is what ‘He Named Me Malala’ is really about, not so much a rounded documentary but a promotional tool for Malala’s commendable global activism efforts. Which is great for, rather fittingly, educational and motivational purposes for youngsters, but unless you’re completely ignorant of her story, there’s not much else aside from a recent historical recap and a feel-good story.
The Bottom Line…
Although not a rounded or compelling documentary, ‘He Named Me Malala’ is an uplifting piece of advocacy filmmaking that’s fitting as an educational and motivational tool for a Malala Yousafzai inspired generation, cementing her as the patron saint of global education.
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An informative, though not always engaging profile of a courageous young woman who defied authority -- and the odds -- to make her voice heard. While the film definitely has its heart in the in the right place and is undoubtedly sincere in its intent, its frequent shifts in focus and loosely structured narrative don't lead to particularly cogent storytelling, despite its overall inspiring message.
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Production Company
Fox Searchlight Pictures,
Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ,
Participant,
National Geographic Channel,
Parkes/MacDonald Image Nation,
Little Room
Release Date Oct 2, 2015
Duration 1 h 28 m
Rating PG-13
Genres
Tagline One Child, One Teacher, One Book and One Pen Can Change the World
Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
• 1 Win & 6 Nominations
Golden Trailer Awards
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Annie Awards
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
