He Named Me Malala: An educational, intimate portrait of Malala Yousafzai

But we soon found out. They’re candid and mundane: when Malala winces at a therapy appointment or shows shy discomfort when the subject of dating is broached; when she pauses a goofy “Minions” cartoon to conduct a serious phone interview; when she picks on her little brothers and frets over a biology test; when a teenage girl who has already done so much sighs, “It’s so hard to get things done in this world”. That earned her a death sentence in the eyes of the Taliban.

The third timeline is animated in a soft pastel sketch style and explains how Malala got her name. Although the British were defeated, Malalai was killed during the battle. She knows what is like to be removed from your school and your home. She loved listening to lectures and after hours, she would stand in the classroom and pretend to give speeches herself.

“We were in Nigeria when the girls were kidnapped by Boko Haram for a long time and she insisted sitting down with President Goodluck Jonathan, and she said, ‘What are you doing about these girls?” It’s not just that she’s intelligent. She’d been militating against their occupation and their fundamentalist conviction that young girls should not be educated. She chooses to speak out.

When Malala was shot, she was not expected to live. Traditionally, these moments would have been done through stagnant shots of talking heads. She spent months in the hospital recuperating. There are nerves that were damaged beyond fix, but Malala holds no grudges. The Islamic extremists arrived with false promises and kindness, soon began banning and burning “inappropriate” books and DVDs, then started calling out those who opposed their radical beliefs, including banning girls from attending school, and eventually escalated into all-out terrorism, killing their enemies and bombing schools.

Guggenheim: Whenever I make my movies I want to visualize who the audience will be.

Speaking to The Express Tribune over the telephone, Swat Qaumi Aman Jirga Spokesperson Ahmed Shah said the people of Swat have realised Malala was making a valuable contribution to carve a bright future for the region. “Strength, power and courage were born”. Now living in England, we see the challenges she faces integrating into a new country, as well as the strong Yousafzai family bond. Since the attack, they have moved four times. Also peppered throughout the film are vivid hand-drawn animations that illustrate important moments from her past. Earlier this year, she publicly urged the Nigerian government to take responsibility for the hundreds of schoolgirls who were kidnapped last year by a terrorist group. Malala was like any other girl-opening up her laptop and looking at pictures of Brad Pitt.

The film is based on Malala’s autobiography, I Am Malala, which was released in October 2013. Fast forward to 2014, at age 17, Malala is the youngest person ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

“People told me she had an accident – later on I found out from TV that she was attacked, it was heart-breaking”.

But the film, which features dubious “dramatic reconstructions” and emphatic musical cues, fails to address the resurgence of the Taliban in such endlessly war-torn areas as Pakistan and Afghanistan and instead focuses its attention narrowly on the uplifting and heroic tale of Malala, and I often found it a boring offshoot of the cult of celebrity.