Salman Rushdie releases intimate film about assassination attempt
In a new film and interview, Salman Rushdie and his wife Eliza discuss the 2022 knife attack, his recovery, and the ongoing threat of religious extremism.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
Salman Rushdie has released a new film, 'Knife', documenting the aftermath of the 2022 attack that nearly killed him. In an interview to promote the film, Rushdie and his wife Eliza spoke about why they decided to make such an intimate record of his recovery.
The film grew out of visual diaries Rushdie began making while recovering from his injuries. He said the camera became a witness for both him and his wife during the difficult days in hospital. Seeing the footage later, he said, was a shock, but also a confirmation that he had come back from the ordeal.
Rushdie also reflected on the decades of threats that followed the publication of 'The Satanic Verses'. He said the hostility from South Asian communities in the UK was harder to bear than the original fatwa from Iran. He described his attacker as a 'stupid kid' who had not been born when the fatwa was issued and had never read the book.
He argued that religious extremism has not gone away, and pointed to gun violence in America and the rise of the Christian right as contemporary sources of violence. The film and interview come just over four years after the attack, for which the attacker was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
On screen
Stills are sampled automatically at 60-second intervals. Where shown, the still is the nearest available frame from the relevant broadcast segment and is included to show what was on screen during that part of the broadcast. A still may not correspond to the exact second of a quoted phrase.
Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | Channel 4 |
|---|---|
| Rushdie said his attacker was not born when the fatwa was issued. | |
| Salman Rushdie's attacker was sentenced to 25 years in prison. | |
| The film about the attack is titled 'Knife'. |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
Channel 4 News presented the story as an exclusive interview with Rushdie and his wife, focusing on the personal and intimate nature of the film. The report included a warning about offensive images and explored Rushdie's broader views on extremism and violence, linking the attack to contemporary issues such as gun crime in America and the Christian right.
- “I began to make these visual diaries to kind of document these weird, strange, awful days.”
- “When I saw the footage I was already much better. In the first place it was kind of a shock to see how bad I'd looked.”
- “He's a stupid kid who was influenced by who knows what.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.