Alex Gibney's 'Knife' revisits the 2022 attack on Salman Rushdie
Alex Gibney's documentary "Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie" returned to wider attention after Variety published its review on 18 September 2026. The film centres on the author's survival after a stabbing attack on stage in 2022. It premiered at Sundance, the Utah festival where independent films often meet buyers and distributors.
Rushdie was repeatedly stabbed on 12 August 2022 while appearing at a literary festival in upstate New York, according to Variety. The attack took place in Chautauqua, N.Y., and footage of the incident later formed part of the documentary. His assailant was Hadi Matar, a man from New Jersey. He survived.
The attack followed decades of threats linked to the 1988 publication of "The Satanic Verses". Ayatollah Khomeini, then Supreme ruler of Iran, issued a fatwa, a religious edict, calling for Rushdie's assassination. That order forced the writer into hiding for years and shaped his public life long afterwards.
The documentary is based on Rushdie's 2024 memoir "Knife", as reported by Variety. It draws on hospital footage shot by his wife, poet and photographer Rachel Eliza Griffiths. It also includes never-before-seen footage of the Chautauqua attack, according to earlier festival coverage from Variety. Together, the two sources place the recovery in a direct, chronological frame.
Festival organisers have kept the film in view through 2026. The Sundance Institute described it as Gibney's "intimate, unflinching portrait" of Rushdie's survival in a post dated 15 September 2026. HamptonsFilm selected it for its 2026 SummerDocs series, an annual summer programme of documentary screenings. The New York Times published its own review on 17 September 2026.
Gibney is a prolific maker of documentaries about public figures and institutions. His HBO-produced film "Musk", about Elon Musk, showed at Venice. "Knife" continues that focus on a single, widely reported public event told at close range.
What makes this stand out for viewers unfamiliar with the background is access. Much of the account rests on personal and eyewitness records rather than reconstruction. Hospital video filmed by family and footage recorded at the venue carry much of the timeline.
