Tommaso Cotronei was born in a small town in Calabria, in Southern Italy, where, still very young, started to work in the fields with his parents in the rural countryside. Struck by a place that gives no hopes but backbreaking labour, no chances of wishing for something different, Cotronei finds the strength to flee from his situation at 21. He spends several years looking for something that would suit his hopes while temporarly working as a manual worker in Northern Europe. He gets into the humanities, helping him finding some stability in life. He attends classes at the Philosophy Dpt. at University of Rome La Sapienza, without graduating. In 1993 he luckily becomes Film Director Vittorio De Seta's assistant.