Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie
The film uses archival footage and Rushdie’s memoir to trace the fatwa’s fallout and the 27-second attack that left him with 15 stab wounds.
- Prolific documentary maker Alex Gibney released 'Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie' in cinemas on September 30, chronicling the author's recovery following the 2022 stabbing in New York.
- The film provides context for the attack at Chautauqua Institution, where a 24-year-old assailant stabbed Rushdie, following decades of death threats from the 1989 fatwa issued by Ayatollah Khomeini over 'The Satanic Verses.'
- Co-Cinematographer Rachel Eliza Griffiths provided intimate, unflinching footage of her husband's hospital recovery, which Gibney uses to detail the physical toll, including 15 stab wounds, and Rushdie's introspective reflections.
- Gibney frames Rushdie not as a victim of extremism but as a rigorous defender of free expression, examining the 'war on words' that remains pervasive today and requires a response.
- Returning to the lecture hall where the attack occurred, Rushdie and Rachel seek personal closure in a documentary that serves as a clarion call for freedom of expression and love overcoming hate.
14 Articles
14 Articles
REVIEW. Alex Gibney's new documentary is based on Salman Rushdie's own memoirs about the attack on him in August 2022.
Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie review – A clarion call for love to overcome hate
When Sir Salman Rushdie attended the Chautauqua Institution in leafy upstate New York to give a public lecture in August 2022, no one expected that vast amphitheatre to be the scene of a vicious, near-fatal knife attack from a New Jersey loner. After all, the writer had been living in the United States for decades, free from the fatwa imposed on him by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 and the subsequent round-the-clock police protection.In this extrao…
POLITICS: Salman Rushdie says he has thought about visiting his stabber
Beginning on Valentine’s Day of 1989, the Booker Prize winning author Salman Rushdie had a sword hanging over his head. For a period of time, threats of death followed him everywhere. The bloody culmination of his life spent alternately on the run and in public — with near-lethal consequences — is captured in “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” a new documentary about Rushdie, his marriage and the dangers of fanaticism. Plagued by t…
Four years after an extremist stabbed him, Salman Rushdie mulls visiting his attacker
Four years after a radical Islamist stabbed Salman Rashdie, the author tells The Post that he has considered visiting the criminal in jail. He reflects on his journey as captured in Alex Gibney's "Knife."
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 45% of the sources lean Left, 44% of the sources lean Right
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
