rewrite this title ‘Knife: The Attempted Murder Of Salman Rushdie’ Acquired By Abramorama

EXCLUSIVE: Abramorama has acquired North American rights to Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, the acclaimed documentary by Alex Gibney about the celebrated writer who survived a brutal knife attack at a public event.

Abramorama plans to open the film on September 17 at IFC Center in New York City before a rollout in theaters across North America. The documentary, which is expected to be submitted for Oscar consideration, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, heading to CPH:DOX in Copenhagen for its international premiere. It has played at the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico, Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, Doc10 Film Festival in Chicago, Nantucket Film Festival, and mostly recently at Hamptons SummerDocs in New York.

Rushdie has spent almost 40 years under threat of death from Islamic extremists after the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against him, claiming Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses blasphemed Islam and mocked the Prophet Muhammad. In August 2022, Rushdie was invited to speak at the Chautauqua Institution in New York on the topic of the United States as a haven for exiled artists and writers. While he was in conversation with a moderator on stage, a young man inspired by the Ayatollah’s fatwa pounced on the writer, stabbing him 15 times. Rushdie lost an eye and suffered other life-threatening injuries but managed to survive.

“I think the film has something to say to the present moment because it is a portrait of mindless violence,” Rushdie told Deadline at Sundance. “The attacker, by his own admission had never read anything I wrote and yet was prepared to commit an act of radical violence — murder being that act. And so, I think as we are living in a time of what you might say is mindless violence, I think the film has something to say to that.”

“Alex Gibney’s Knife is one of the most vital documentaries we’ve encountered in years,” commented Karol Martesko-Fenster, CEO of AB2 Media Group / Abramorama, and Damon G. Smith, SVP of Business Growth and Creative Strategy. “It’s a portrait of an act of unimaginable violence answered not with fear, but with art, clarity, and defiance. Salman Rushdie’s story is a reminder of what’s at stake when free expression comes under attack.”

Abramorama notes the film incorporates never-before-seen footage shot by Rushdie’s wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, in the days and weeks following the incident, “offering a graphic, intimate, and deeply personal account of his recovery. It traces both his physical and spiritual journey, including ongoing challenges from losing an eye and reduced use of one hand.”

Rushdie published a bestselling memoir of the incident, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, in 2024. Gibney draws upon that book and the video documenting Rushdie’s condition and progress shot by the author’s wife.

“Eliza’s footage captured not only Salman’s physical recovery, but a level of intimacy and vulnerability that revealed a much deeper story beneath the surface,” Gibney said in a statement. “Salman’s courage in sharing his experience with such honesty allowed us to explore something far beyond the violence itself. On one level, Knife is a story of survival and recovery after a horrific attack. But the deeper journey, one that Salman speaks to so powerfully, is the movement from a place of active hate to a place of love. That transformation, and the complexity, courage, and humanity within it, is what drew me to this story and what I wanted to explore through the film.”

Gibney, who won the 2008 Oscar for his film Taxi to the Dark Side, is also known for Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (Academy Award nomination) and Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (3 Primetime Emmy wins, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special), among many other films. He directs Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie and produces the film alongside Erin Edeiken and Sruthi Pinnamaneni. Executive producers of the Jigsaw production include Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Wendy Schmidt, and Richard Perello.

Dogwoof, overseeing international sales of the documentary, has secured deals in Australia and New Zealand (Madman), CEE (HBO), Spain (Movistar), Spain and Portugal (Filmin), the Nordics (NonStop), the Netherlands (VPRO), and Belgium (VRT), with additional territories to be announced. Altitude Film Distribution is releasing the film in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Rushdie, whose works include Midnight’s Children, Shalimar the Clown, Quichotte, and Fury, has maintained a sense of humor despite the terrible ordeal he suffered.

“There’s a nice moment at the end of the credits where Salman’s being served a cake and he looks around and said, ‘Anybody got a knife?’” Gibney told Deadline at Sundance. “One of the great things about Salman as a person is he’s very funny, but also his writing is infused with humor… That was one of the things that we wanted to emphasize in the making of the film.”

At Sundance, Rushdie’s wife, Rachel Eliza Griffiths, told us, “It’s been deeply moving and remains deeply moving to me to watch Salman survive and not just survive, but just really continue forward with courage, to write Knife so quickly after the attack, to write a collection of short stories. He’s a badass.”