Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie

At the centre of the film is the unbreakable strength to continue creating, despite the death threats. On August 12, 2022, writer Salman Rushdie climbed onstage in NY state to talk about the USA as a safe haven for writers living in exile. After a few seconds an attacker stabbed the writer 15 times. Rushdie was severely injured and lost an eye but survived. Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney’s documentary follows Rushdie’s recovery process and reveals the most significant waypoints in his biography. The film utilizes previously unpublished personal footage filmed by Rushdie’s wife, poet-photographer Rachel Eliza Griffiths, after the attack. Kinfe: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie is a story about the price of the freedom of speech – about what can happen when literary text is declared a threat and a writer’s body becomes a battlefield for ideologies, religious fanaticism and political power.

In 1989, after Iran’s Ayatollah issued a fatwa against Rushdie (a religious ruling with an invitation to kill), the writer spent several years in complete isolation guarded by the Secret Service. The publishers and translators of his works have also been subjected to threats and attacks. The Rushdie situation is not an exception – writers, artists and journalists all over the world are still being jailed, persecuted, physically threatened, killed or forced into exile for their works and publicly stated opinions. The 2025 PEN America study “Freedom to Write Index” recorded at least 401 jailed writers in 44 countries – the highest number since the index was created. In the “Writers at Risk” database there are currently more than 1,000 active cases involving culture and media professionals who are experiencing persecution, attacks or deportation.