He Named Me Malala

Dir: Davis Guggenheim

2015

***

Activist and Nobel peace prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has become one of the most respected figures of the twenty-first century. In 2009 Malala, who is named after Malalai of Maiwand, a famous Pushtu poet and warrior from southern Afghanistan who rallied locals together to fight against the British invaders in the 1880 battle of Maiwand (and is sometimes referred to as 'The Afghan Joan of Arc'), first became known when she began writing an anonymous blog for the BBC. She would write about the rise of the Taliban in Swat, the difficulties she had living there as a young girl and the rights women were being stripped of by the Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah. It's not something that any parent wanted their child to be writing due to the harsh punishments they could receive but after approaching many schools, local teacher Ziauddin Yousafzai suggested the idea to his daughter. As time went on, more notice was being taken of Malala's blogs and she was the focus of a New York Times documentary and was recognized by the Children's international peace prize jury. Her notoriety came at a cost and in 2012 was and two friends were shot by order of Maulana Fazlullah himself. All three girls survived, Malala, now a global name, was flown to the UK by the UN for life-saving treatment. Since her year-long rehabilitation she has gone on to speak to people around the globe on the importance of equal education for all girls as well as take her school exams. She is one of the brightest symbols of hope and change in the world and the positive effect she has had around the world is unquestionable. What is questionable however is how much of what she has said is her own. Her some-what liberal father had been speaking in public for many years, he knew the impact a child could have and guided her accordingly. The fact he named her Malala says a lot about his character. The documentary interviews Malala and her family and follows her on many of her peace missions as well as life back home and at school but it never really gets down to the facts. The initial meeting with the BBC isn't explained, gaps are filled with wishy-washy animation that distracts from important questions and on several occasions words are clearly put into the mouths of the younger interviewees. As documentaries go, it really doesn't do a great job. Malala's mother doesn't come across very well at all, she is described as uneducated and a traditionalist by her family and is clearly unaware of what they are saying about her. It has to be said that at times Malala sounds extremely naive and equally as traditionalist as her mother, she will state in public in front of a big crowd that girls should have the same rights as boys but when asked about it on a personal level she laughs nervously and suggests that she doesn't believe everything she says. For me it clearly suggests that it is her father talking through her, he may well be an encouragement and an inspiration to her, she's clearly in awe of him, but it is still really him talking in many respects. Of course she is still only young, I do give her credit for what she has achieved in the face of such danger but there is far more to this story than what is featured in this documentary. Davis Guggenheim let so much slip through his fingers that any good documentary film-makers would have jumped on. Why ask a question that you already know the answer to? Malala refuses the few questions that are about her personally and the whole production feels more like a promotional film rather than a true document of her up until this point. I think Guggenheim has done the girl a disservice if I'm being honest. She sounds pre-programmed throughout the film, the truth is we know as little about Malala at the end of the film as we do at the beginning. I worry about the burden she has on her young shoulders, this film didn't convince me everything is as it seems, I certainly think she has been used from day one and that it isn't necessarily always a good thing. Oppression comes in very different guises.