Salman Rushdie was speaking at an event celebrating the US as a sanctuary for exiled writers and artists when a young man stormed the stage and stabbed the author 15 times in 27 seconds. The attack took place on camera and at Rushdie’s insistence, his wife Rachel Eliza Griffiths continued to film, both in the immediate aftermath and over the weeks and months of rehab and recovery that followed. (Rushdie permananently lost his vision in one eye.)
Oscar and Emmy winner Alex Gibney interweaves this footage with archival material from Rushdie’s youth and the storm that followed Iran’s fatwa against him after the publication of The Satanic Verses, along with extracts from his writing, especially his recent memoir about the attack (also called Knife), and reflections on what this says about art, free speech, censorship, hatred, forgiveness, and the world we find ourselves in today.
Staggeringly intimate.
Katie Erbland, IndieWire
A vibrant testament to the intellectual life of its subject.
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
A film that stands as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and our ability to rebuild even after experiencing the worst.
Zachary Lee, The Wrap
Alex Gibney
Salman Rushdie
USA
2026
English
Book Tickets
Friday October 16
Sunday October 18
Wednesday October 21
Friday October 23
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Wendy Schmidt Richard Perello
Producer
Alex Gibney, Erin Edeiken, Sruthi Pinnamaneni
Cinematography
Rachel Eliza Griffiths
Editor
Andy Grieve
Original Music
Will Bates
Also Playing
All the Lovers in the Night
A lonely proofreader's isolated world begins to open through an unlikely friendship with a gentle physics teacher. Based on Mieko Kawakami's acclaimed novel, this luminous drama is a delicate meditation on loneliness, intimacy, and self-discovery.
Clarissa
Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa brings Mrs. Dalloway to present-day Lagos, with Sophie Okonedo playing the titular society hostess opposite David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri, and India Amarteifio in a Nigerian vision of class, privilege, and past lives.
Image: © Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
Opening Gala: The Debut
VIFF is honoured to open the festival with this special by-invitation screening of Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut. When meek Mona (Julianne Moore) lands a part in a musical, she fully inhabits her character, but grows increasingly untethered from reality.
Árru
Set against the mountains and fjords of northern Norway, Árru follows reindeer herder Maia as a proposed copper mine threatens her Sámi community, forcing her to fight to protect both her community and the land that sustains it.