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Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie

Alex Gibney · 2026 · USA · 107 min

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More than 30 years after Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called for the death of author Salman Rushdie over the publication of The Satanic Verses, Rushdie traveled to Chautauqua, NY to speak about the US as a sanctuary for exiled artists. At his talk, a young man rushed the stage, intent on killing him with a knife. Using Rushdie’s works, including his powerful memoir Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, Oscar winning documentarian Gibney crafts a striking testament to freedom of expression and a defiant response to the attempt on Rushdie’s life.