THE STORY – Previously unseen footage captured by Salman Rushdie’s wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, documents his journey. Following not just his physical rehabilitation, but also the restoration of his spirit and optimism. Inspired by Rushdie’s memoir “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.”
THE CAST – Salman Rushdie & Rachel Eliza Griffiths
THE TEAM – Alex Gibney (Director)
THE RUNNING TIME – 107 Minutes
Plenty of creative folk can claim to be considered “controversial,” due to the incendiary nature of their provocative art or the manner in which they speak their mind without caring about who they may offend. And then there’s Salman Rushdie. Unlike other public figures who attract legions of detractors, to hear Rushdie describe it, he has never intentionally courted controversy. But ever since the publication of his magical realist, theologically-based novel “The Satanic Verses,” few authors (if any) can say that they’ve attracted more negative attention. Less than a year after its 1988 publication, a fatwa against Rushdie was issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. This proclamation called for the murder of the author for what Khomeini deemed to be blasphemous anti-Muslim content in the novel. How many other artists can say that millions of people were officially encouraged to end their lives because of their art?
After this notice of permitted assassination (not to mention the generous bounty), Rushdie was forced into hiding, aided and protected by the UK government. And while no direct harm came to Rushdie during this time, violence occurred in his orbit. His Japanese translator was murdered, and several other international literary figures connected to Rushdie were attacked and seriously injured. In addition, several riots, protests, bombings, and a deadly arson attack in Turkey occurred as a direct result of the fatwa. In 1998, the Iranian government declared an end to the political support of the death warrant, and Rushdie announced his intention to cease hiding. Still, that was far from the end of the threat against him, and in 2022, he was stabbed onstage during a speaking event at New York’s Chautauqua Institution. The attacker, Hadi Matar, was immediately apprehended and is currently serving 25 years in prison. Although Rushdie survived, the 15 stab wounds he was dealt resulted in serious injury, including the loss of one eye and partial loss of the use of a hand.
During his weeks-long hospital stay, his wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, made sure to capture his injuries, procedures, and recovery via cell phone footage. According to the couple, they both agreed they needed to document this as proof of the effects of violent speech and censorship. This footage makes up much of “Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie,” the new documentary from acclaimed filmmaker Alex Gibney. The film is partially based on Rushdie’s published account “Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder.” With the film, Gibney expands from the hospital videos, providing context for what came before the attack and, most ingeniously, letting Rushdie tell his story in his own words.
Unlike many documentaries, the film smartly doesn’t adhere to a strictly linear timeline. The hospital recovery segments are presented in order, but they’re broken up by explanations of Rushdie’s past controversies and reflections by the author himself. These musings are depicted in abstractly crafted sequences, including a notable segment in which Rushdie confronts Matar in an imagined conversation that mimics a scene from Akira Kurosawa’s crime film “High and Low.”
Gibney’s strongest and greatest choice as a filmmaker is to step back and let Rushdie guide the film. The entire documentary is narrated by the author, allowing his thoughts, meditations, asides, and tangents to be presented unobstructed. Obviously, Rushdie is intelligent and has the authorial articulation necessary to convey his musings with clarity and creativity. At times, it may just feel like he’s reading passages from his book, and that may actually be the case, but he’s so well-spoken that it’s hard to complain about hearing his thoughts directly from the source. And refreshingly, the author’s humor stands out. His commentary is cheeky, clever, and even occasionally snarky. It’s almost surprising how relatable this makes him, given that society’s image of him is either hyper-intelligent or dangerous.
The film concludes with an emotionally effective segment where Rushdie takes his first visit back to the site of the assassination attempt since his hospital release. It’s a cathartic moment for him and the audience, who have become intimately acquainted with him as a subject across the course of the film. Smartly, Gibney waits until this sequence to use footage of the actual attack. It’s a choice that allows the moment to feel even more impactful, now that we have a fuller picture of both the victim and the knife-wielder, and all of the circumstances that led to that moment. As Rushdie himself says, “We would not be where we are today without the calamities of our yesterdays.” The attack is hard to watch, of course, but it’s the kind of striking moment that leaves a long-lasting impression in the way that only non-fiction films can.
“Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie” centers around a fascinating figure who’s an anti-censorship hero to some and a target of outrage to others. As Rushdie summarized in his talkback after the Sundance Film Festival premiere, creativity is the enemy of authoritarianism, and Alex Gibney’s documentary stands as a testament to the power of art in any form to push back against both abstract and real forms of oppression.
