Documentary About Attack On PRH Author Salman Rushdie
The film showing footage of the 2022 attack and its aftermath had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival.
A new movie about renowned writer Salman Rushdie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, held in the U.S. from January 22 to February 1 this year. Titled “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” the film revisits the knife attack on the author in the summer of 2022. Directed by U.S. filmmaker Alex Gibney, the documentary is based on Rushdie’s bestselling memoir “The Knife” and portrays both the attack itself and the physical and psychological process of coming to terms with its aftermath.
Footage filmed by Rushdie’s wife
On August 12, 2022, Rushdie, who was born in India, raised in England, and has lived in New York since 2000, was attacked with a knife by a masked, Islamist-motivated assailant, Hadi Matar, while giving a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in New York State. The irony of the moment was stark: Rushdie had been speaking about the importance of protecting writers from violence. The then 24-year-old attacker reportedly sought revenge for statements made by the author in his earlier novel “The Satanic Verses.” Rushdie sustained serious injuries to his hands and upper body, lost his right eye, and narrowly survived after audience members rushed the stage and subdued the attacker. The film opens with a detailed reconstruction of the 27-second attack from Rushdie’s perspective and includes previously unreleased footage showing the immediate aftermath. These images were filmed by his wife, writer Rachel Eliza Griffiths, in his hospital room in the days following the assault. Rushdie himself decided, shortly after regaining consciousness, to document what had happened and was convinced that these scenes should be shown in all their brutality.
The film, in which Salman Rushdie appears both as protagonist and narrator, not only traces his medical recovery but also places the attack in a broader political and biographical context. Director Alex Gibney revisits Rushdie’s life story, focusing in particular on the controversy surrounding the 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses,” which triggered global protests over alleged blasphemy and led to a fatwa issued by Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini. The fatwa called for Rushdie and all those involved in the book’s publication to be killed, forced the author into hiding for nearly a decade, and ultimately laid the ideological groundwork for the attack. The film also features historical footage of demonstrations and death threats, which the filmmakers argue helped prepare the ground for the later assault.
Attack on art and free speech
Rushdie views the film as a contribution to the broader debate on politically motivated violence against culture and freedom of expression. “I experienced, almost simultaneously, the worst side of human nature – violence, led by ignorance, induced by the irresponsible – and, on the other hand, the best side of human nature, because the first people who saved my life were the audience,” he said at the premiere. The film, Rushdie emphasized, is not about him personally but about something larger, of which his experience is only one example. “I always thought that this is a story about conflict between hatred and love, between violence and love, between ignorance and love,” he said.
Despite its disturbing subject matter, the film also captures moments of intimacy, humor, and resilience. Rushdie’s relationship with his wife is portrayed as a symbol of humanity and strength. In its final scenes, the film returns to video footage of the attack, this time from surveillance cameras. Viewers also see audience members disarming the attacker and saving Rushdie’s life. Reflecting on that moment, Rushdie told the audience: “Here are the people rushing to defend me against an ideologically driven man with a knife. And yet they all agreed to do that, to risk themselves in order to save me. We are that, too.”
The film was met with prolonged applause and standing ovations at its Sundance premiere on January 25. A theatrical release has been announced, though a specific release date has not yet been set.
