New film uncovers another side of Malala
by Kelli Hill
It’s been almost three years since the world came to know Malala Yousafzai.
On Oct. 9, 2012, the 15-year-old Pakistani girl was shot in the head by
Taliban men for standing up for her right to go to school.
After
months in a hospital bed, Malala picked up right where she left off in
her fight to give every girl the chance to get an education. She has
become an activist and symbol for girls’ and women’s rights around the
world. In December 2014, she became the youngest person ever to be
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Oscar-winning
documentary director Davis Guggenheim spent 18 months with Malala and
her family, capturing her travels to schools across the world as well as
her quite normal family life in Birmingham, England. Yahoo Global News
Anchor Katie Couric sat down with Guggenheim to talk about his new film,
“He Named Me Malala,” which will be released tomorrow.
“I
realized that there was this very complex relationship between her and
her father,” says Guggenheim about setting out to make the film, adding,
“I wanted to unpack the mystery between this man and this girl.”
While
the film follows the father-daughter relationship throughout, the rest
of the family – including Malala’s mother, Tor Pekai — give a glimpse of
another side of the young activist.
“Anyone
who knows them knows that she gets her passion and sense of mission
from her father, Ziauddin, but she gets her moral strength and her
spiritual power from her mother. When you go into her house, you figure
out right away who’s in charge. And Tor Pekai, her mother, is in
charge,” says Guggenheim. He also says Malala’s brothers were quick to
tell him that their famous sister is “the naughtiest girl in the world.”
By
the end of the film, Guggenheim really wants viewers — including his
two daughters — to realize that Malala is just an “ordinary girl in a
very small town, and she became extraordinary because she made a really
tough choice: to risk her life for what she believed.”
Guggenheim says, “There are girls everywhere who have that feeling of ‘if Malala can do it, I can do it.’”
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