He Named Me Malala

“Good morning America” coanchor Amy robach got an intimate look inside her world.

Coming this Friday, October 9th, Oscar winning documentarian Davis Guggenheim’s new film, “He Named Me Malala”, is set to release in select cities across the country. In his adulthood, he would blast the controlling teachings of Fazlullah (aka Radio Mullah), who lead the extremist Taliban group that took over Swat Valley. Yet she says she harbors no anger toward her assailant.

The movie explores how much Ziauddin admired the vigorously with which his own elders told stories, and how he eventually overcame his noticeable stutter and apprehension for public speaking.

While the film itself is plagued with structural storytelling issues that are at best emotionally numbing, at worst confounding, Malala’s inspirational spirit is undeniable, and the documentary allows that to shine through.

But the doc often settles on his story, as if forthright Malala isn’t enough to hold our interest. She inspired countless with her determination and message – but Malala’s bravery also made her a target.

She was flown to Britain and treated at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, making a full recovery. As an introduction to a remarkable young woman – or a reintroduction, for those who have read Malala’s book or paid attention to the news reports about history’s youngest victor of the Nobel Peace Prize – it’s powerful. Jarring images of reality – blood smeared on the white upholstered seats of the school bus in which Malala took a bullet to her forehead – vies against sequences of impressionistic hand-drawn animation designed by Jason Carpenter. “It’s quite hard to tell girls who really I am”. She shyly shares her crushes on Brad Pitt and tennis star Roger Federer. Dating, boys? I don’t have must have time.

Here is how that fact came out: She was asked if, like Pakistan’s first female Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, she would want to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan, and she responded directly, “Hopefully, if people vote [for me]”. Malala’s father, a teacher and founder of Malala’s school, named his daughter Malala after the fairy tale character. You may also be annoyed with Americans who have free access to education – something Pakistani girls long for – and waste it. He lovingly describes his close relationship with his daughter, referring to them as “one soul in two different bodies”. All of this is done with the aid of obvious green screen effects, which renders the movie something of a cartoon whenever we cut back to this device. Their views over the years became outrageous to her, especially when they tried to stop girls from going to school. “If she can’t challenge me, then how can she challenge the world?” That folk hero was a flag-bearing teenager who perished in 1880 while rallying fellow Pashtun resistance fighters to an unlikely victory over British invaders in a pivotal battle of the Second Anglo-Afghan War.

“I’m here, standing on this stage, becoming the voice of children”.