''He Named Me Malala'' is a 2015 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by

Davis Guggenheim Philip Davis Guggenheim (born November 3, 1963) is an American writer, director and producer. His credits include ''NYPD Blue'', '' ER'', '' 24'', ''Alias'', ''The Shield'', '' Deadwood'', and the documentaries ''An Inconvenient Truth'', ''It ...

. The film presents the young Pakistani female activist and

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...

laureate

Malala Yousafzai Malala Yousafzai ( ur, , , pronunciation: ; born 12 July 1997), is a Pakistani female education activist and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Awarded when she was 17, she is the world's youngest Nobel Prize laureate, and the second Pak ...

, who has spoken out for the rights of girls, especially the right to education, since she was very young. The film also recounts how she survived and has become even more eloquent in her quest after being hunted down and shot by a

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

gunman as part of the organization's violent opposition to girls' education in the

Swat Valley Swat District (, ps, سوات ولسوالۍ, ) is a district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. With a population of 2,309,570 per the 2017 national census, Swat is the 15th-largest district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pro ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. The title refers to the Afghani folk hero

Malalai of Maiwand Malalai of Maiwand ( ps, د ميوند ملالۍ), also known as Malala ( ps, links=no, ملاله), or Malalai Anna ( ps, links=no, ملالۍ انا, meaning ''Malalai the " Grandmother"'') is a national folk hero of Afghanistan who ralli ...

, after whom her father named her. On December 1, 2015, ''He Named Me Malala'' was shortlisted with fourteen other documentaries submitted to the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Dur ...

in the Best Documentary Feature category, but failed to gain the nomination. It was nominated at the

43rd Annie Awards The 43rd Annual Annie Awards honoring excellence in the field of animation of 2015 was held on February 6, 2016, at the University of California, Los Angeles's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California, presenting in 36 categories. This year, a new c ...

in Best Animated Special Production category.

Production

Walter F. Parkes Walter F. Parkes (born April 15, 1951) is an American producer, screenwriter, and media executive. The producer of more than 50 films, including the ''Men in Black'' series and '' Minority Report,'' he is the co-founder and co-chairman of Dre ...

and

Laurie MacDonald Laurie MacDonald (born December 19, 1953) is an American film producer. She is married to Walter F. Parkes. MacDonald and Parkes helped build the original DreamWorks SKG, where Parkes served as the head of its motion picture division. After thei ...

produced the film through Imagenation Abu Dhabi FZ along with Participant Media.

Release

Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century St ...

acquired the US rights to the film on March 31, 2015, while

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., Canal+ Production, and Canal+ Image and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film production and distribution company that owns ...

would release the film in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The film premiered at the

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado during Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 49th edition took place on September 2 -6, 2022. History First held on 30 August 1974, t ...

on September 4, 2015, and received a theatrical release in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on October 2. On June 18, 2015,

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

announced they had acquired broadcasting rights to the film and will air the film in 171 countries in 45 languages. In Pakistan, Geo News broadcast the film, which was dubbed in

Urdu language Urdu (;"Urdu"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. ur, , link=no, ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, In ...

by family of Yousafzai. ''He Named Me Malala'' was released on DVD on December 15, 2015.

Reception

Box office

''He Named Me Malala'' opened theatrically in the United States on October 2, 2015 and earned $60,884 in its opening weekend, ranking number 43 in the United States box office. The following week the film expanded from 4 to 446 screens, earning an estimated $685,000. As of October 25, 2015, the film's domestic total stands at $1,978,146. The film began its international rollout on October 22 in Germany where it grossed $29,880 fin 71 screens for a 25th place spot. It opened Austria a day later, where it debuted with $4,765 from 11 screens. As of October 25, 2015, the film's domestic total stands at $1,978,146 and the international total is $34,644, giving the film a worldwide gross of $2,012,790.

Critical reception

The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a rating of 71% based on 110 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's consensus reads, "''He Named Me Malala'' spotlights a worthy subject, but without the focus her story deserves." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a score of 61 out of 100, based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

The film received two

Women's Image Network Awards Women's Image Network (WIN) is a charity that produces The Women's Image Awards, "Advancing a gender-balanced world and increasing the value of women and girls by celebrating outstanding film and television." The awards show is produced during ...

nominations, including Best Documentary and Best Producer. It was nominated at the 69th

British Academy Film Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTA Film Awards is an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best British and international contributions to film. The cere ...

for Best Documentary. It lost to '' Amy''.

Soundtrack

The official soundtrack to the film was released digitally on September 25, 2015 and physically on October 30, 2015 by

Sony Classical Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired by ...

. *;Additional film music (not included on the official soundtrack) ** "Happiness" (traditional) - performed by Form IV Class of Kisaruni Secondary School 2014 ** "I Am Many" - written by

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Col ...

and Thomas Newman ** "Story to Tell" - by Alicia Keys

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:He Named Me Malala Malala Yousafzai 2015 films 2015 documentary films American documentary films Emirati documentary films Films about activists Fox Searchlight Pictures films Documentary films about child abuse Documentary films about Pakistan Documentary films about violence against women Films directed by Davis Guggenheim Violence against women in Pakistan Films scored by Thomas Newman Thomas Newman albums 2015 soundtrack albums Participant (company) films Films produced by Walter F. Parkes 2010s feminist films 2010s English-language films Primetime Emmy Award-winning broadcasts 2010s American films