L”Isola delle Storie XVIII
Witold Szabłowski

Witold Szabłowski

Writer, Screenwriter and Filmmaker

Born in Ostrów Mazowiecka in 1980, Witold Szabłowski is a writer, screenwriter, and documentary filmmaker. He has written about Turkey, the Polish People’s Republic, the Volhynia massacre, and about different dictatorships. The film rights of his book on the food of dictators, How to Feed A Dictator (Penguin, 2019, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones), have been acquired by Hollywood. Szabłowski is co-screenwriter and co-producer of the series based on his book. 

His 2020 directorial debut, Cuba – Revolution from the Kitchen, with Fidel Castro’s chef as the protagonist, was nominated for the Prix Europe, an award for the best documentaries in Europe. In 2021, he published the book What’s Cooking in The Kremlin: From Rasputin to Putin, How Russia Built an Empire With a Knife and Fork, where he describes the lives of chefs, from the last Tzar’s cook to Putin’s. Through them, he illustrates how in dictatorships, everyone, even the chef, participates in shaping the country. 

Szabłowski has received significant recognition for his reportages. In 2010, he received the European Parliament Journalism Prize for his article Two bodies will wash ashore today. His book The Assassin from Apricot City (Stork Press, 2013) won the Beata Pawlak Award and the English edition received the English PEN Award. Some of his works have been published in Italy and translated by Marzena Borejczuk, namely, L’assassino dalla città delle albicocche (Keller, 2019), Orsi danzanti (Keller, 2022) and Come sfamare un dittatore (Keller, 2023).

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Szabłowski has been involved in helping Ukrainian refugees in Poland and raising awareness about the war. 

05/07 - ore 12:00
Mezzogiorno di Fuoco

Sant'Antiocru

Disordine Mondiale

Andrea Colamedici incontra Witold Szabłowski, Manlio Graziano

traduce Juana Sommermann Weber

in collaborazione con Istituto Polacco di Roma

05/07 - ore 19:15
Storie di altri luoghi

Sant'Antiocru

Memoria dei Paesi dell’Est

Elisabetta Bucciarelli incontra Witold Szabłowski

traduce Juana Sommermann Weber

in collaborazione con Istituto Polacco di Roma 

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