Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian man whose 18-year residence in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport loosely inspired the 2004 film “The Terminal,”The AP reports that he died from a heart attack. reported.Nasseri, who was 80 years old, died in Terminal 2F. This is just a few blocks from Terminal 1, where Nasseri lived from 1988 to 2006. He was 80 years of age.
Nasseri was a native of Soleiman in Iran. At the time, it was under British control. After returning from England to study in 1974, he was apparently arrested for protesting the shah. He was then expelled from the country. After being denied a passport, he applied for political asylum in several European countries. He was eventually allowed to settle down in Belgium after his briefcase containing papers was taken in Paris. He ended up at the airport where he was a celebrity with the local staff and travellers.
In 1999A 54-year-old Nasseri was granted asylum in Belgium once more. He refused to leave and would stay in the airport for seven more years.
“Eventually, I will leave the airport,”He TelledThe Associated Press at the moment. “But I am still waiting for a passport or transit visa.”
After a time in Paris, Nasseri was discharged from the hospital. He then returned to Charles de Gaulle. There he died.
His story was loosely adapted into Steven Spielberg’s 2004 dramedy “The Terminal.” The film stars Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski, a passenger from a fictional Balkan country who gets stuck in New York’s JFK Airport after a civil war erupts in his home country. He is unable to travel home and cannot enter the United States with a valid passport so he settles in one of the terminals. “The Terminal”The film was a huge box office hit, earning $77.8million domestically and more than $219million worldwide.
You can’t like the characterHe is based on Nasseri, who spent the majority of his time at the airport reading, writing, and talking to passersby and workers.
Nasseri, nicknamed “Lord Alfred”Oder “Sir Alfred”Staff, was also the subject mockumentary “Here To Where”Documentaries: 2002; 2000 “Sir Alfred of Charles de Galle Airport”And “Waiting for Godot at De Gaulle”Opera “Flight”(1998). “Lost in Transit.”
