Teresina Moscatiello
Teresina Moscatiello grew up in the Saarland, a federal
state of Germany, in a small town called Ommersheim with a
village church, a butcher and a few cows. As the daughter
of Italian migrant workers, her roots lie in the south of
Italy. Her parents originate from a mediaeval mountain
village called Nusco, 914 m above sea level, close to
Naples. Here she spent the summers of her childhood. The
people there, who seem to live in another time and who grow
up with strong traditions and values, made a big impression
on her. To this day, her favourite food is pork snout with
lemon juice, salt and pepper.
After studying literature at the Sorbonne in Paris, she
completed a degree at the Institute for Theatre, Film and
Television of the Ruhr University in Bochum. Subsequently
she completed her studies in directing at the Deutsche
Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb academy). She got
her first Hollywood experience on the set of Miramax’s
Gangs of New York with Martin Scorsese.
As director, producer and screenwriter, she has completed
several short films and documentaries, for example
FREISTOSS (2003), which won the Jury Award at the Lucca
Short Film Festival in Italy. FREISTOSS played in cinemas
all across Germany as supporting film, and was broadcast on
arte’s “Kurzschlussmagazin”. Actors she has worked with
include Birol Ünel, in her short film ABOUT TWO. Her short
film against the war in Iraq, DIMUQRATIJA (2003), was
nominated for the producer award at the international
student film festival in Potsdam and was released as
“social spot” on the national cinema circuit.
On a trip to Israel in 2004, she filmed her first
documentary. In the German-Israeli co-production AMBULANCE
OF SUBSTANCE, she accompanies a paramedic on his night
shifts in the border areas (premiered at the Cinematheque
Tel Aviv, 2004). As filmmaker and jury member, she has been
invited to present her films at numerous international film
festivals, including Amiens, Tel Aviv, Ankara, Lisbon,
Rome, Mexico, Rio, Split, Glasgow, Montevideo, Mar del
Plata (Argentina) and Missoula (Big Sky Documentary Film
Festival, USA).
CIVILIANS ON THE BATTLEFIELD originated in the Super Nine
documentary group of the dffb academy, with Andres Veiel as
dramaturgical mentor. In 2007, she founded the Sinafilm
Produktion und Verleih GmbH together with Jakob Rühle. This
production and distribution company is located in
Prenzlauer Berg in Berlin. Currently she is working on her
first feature-length fiction film.
