95-Minute 'How to Feed a Dictator' Premieres at Tribeca, Seeking Distribution

1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jun 9

Five private chefs to rulers including Pol Pot, Kim Jong-il, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein and Augusto Pinochet anchor Andrew Neel’s new documentary, which debuts at Tribeca this week.
Based on Witold Szabłowski’s 2020 book, the 95-minute film uses food and kitchen rituals to examine how proximity, privilege and fear bound ordinary workers to brutal regimes.
Charles Otonde Odera’s account is among the starkest: Amin’s former chef describes wealth, a death sentence after a child’s stomach ache, and an order to cook a human heart.
Other chefs remain openly loyal, with Pol Pot’s former cook still revering him and Pinochet’s chef preserving memorabilia, underscoring the film’s focus on moral compromise and denial.
Neel said the documentary is still seeking distribution as it argues that dictators are sustained not only by terror, but by people who accept what he calls a 'great gig.'