Deferential documentary of young heroine Malala Yousafzai

To say that Malala Yousafzai appears wise beyond her years is an understatement of epic scale. The heroine of Davis Guggenheim's rightly deferential documentary, He Named Me Malala, is the youngest person to be accorded the Nobel Peace Prize. She was 17 when she was presented the laureate last year, and she had been nominated for the same honor the previous year. (The news of that first nomination, and the Yousafzai family's response to it, is captured in a telling, sitting-around-the-house moment in Guggenheim's film. Yes, there was disappointment.)

Yousafzai is the Pakistani girl who, at age 11, was blogging for the BBC about her life in the Swat Valley under the oppressive control of the Taliban that had decreed only boys should attend schools - girls were to stay home.

On Oct. 9, 2012, Yousafzai - on her way to school - was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman. He Named Me Malala chronicles the teenager's remarkable story of survival, the surgeries that saved her, her physical rehabilitation, her family's move from the Swat Valley to the United Kingdom, and her mission to promote girls' education - a mission that has taken her around the world, speaking to schoolgirls in African villages, to the White House, to the United Nations.

Guggenheim, the Oscar-winning director of the Al Gore climate-change doc, An Inconvenient Truth, offers a portrait of a young woman whose grace and gentle humor belie a fierce resolve. The camera captures Yousafzai with her impish younger brother; with her father, Ziauddin, an educator who was likewise on the Taliban's hit list; and her mother, Toor Pekai, a softspoken but watchful presence. There are scenes with the daughter showing her father the ins and outs of Twitter and Facebook, her awkward giggles when Guggenheim (off-camera) asks about boyfriends, or the lack of them.

A polished piece of advocacy filmmaking, He Named Me Malala begins - and is intercut with - beautiful animated sequences featuring Malala's 19th-century namesake, Malalai of Maiwand, an Afghani Pashtun poet who inspired her countrymen to rally against an onslaught of British troops. Malalai was killed as she stood her ground. Malala, amazingly, was not.

It's quite a story, and if Guggenheim goes overboard in the telling of it, that's perfectly understandable.

srea@phillynews.com

215-854-5629@Steven_Rea

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Directed by Davis Guggenheim. With Malala Yousafzai, Ziauddin Yousafzai, and Toor Pekai Yousafzai. Distributed by Fox Searchlight.

Running time: 1 hour, 27 mins.

Parent's guide: PG-13 (graphic news footage, adult themes).

Playing at: Area theaters.EndText