Entertainment
The man who inspired The Terminal starring Tom Hanks dies at the airport
The Terminal is one of those movies that is sure to get into your heart once you see it. When you think of this movie, the first face that comes to mind is obviously Tom Hanks, but not everyone knows that this movie is inspired by a true story.
Often when we watch a movie, especially when it has such a beautiful and unreal plot, like The Terminal, we don’t think it could be based on something that actually happened.
On the other hand, one of the finest films played by the talented Tom Hanks, even though the story has been fictionalized, is really based on a true story. Sadly, the unfortunate traveler stuck in an airport terminal who inspired this film has died at 76.
The story of Merhan Karimi Nasseri
Merhan Karimi Nasseri, with her story, inspired Steven Spielberg to create The Terminal, starring Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta Jones and associates. Nasseri lost his passport on a trip to London from Brussels and a stopover in Paris. This set off a series of events that stranded him for four years at Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris.
Having been expelled from his country of origin, he could not be returned and could not reach London, so he had to remain in neutral territory, which was precisely that of the French airport. Later, through a bureaucratic ploy, Belgium and France offered him citizenship in one of these two countries. Nasseri, however, turned down the offer as his goal was to find his mother who was an English citizen. Thus Merhan Karimi Nasseri stayed 18 years in Terminal 1 of the CGD.
In The Terminal Nasseri’s name does not appear
Even though Merhan Karimi Nasseri’s name does not appear in The Terminal, Spielberg paid Nasseri a substantial sum of money, for permission to tell his story, obviously more fictional and with different facts and/or characters. of official history.
And that’s what happened with the film The Terminal, since the film deals with the story of Viktor Navorski, who was “trapped” at New York airport by the Krakozhia (fictitious city), for a coup that took place there. The accompanying story then imagines a different scenario from the more romantic and fictional real story.
Although Merhan Karimi Nasseri then decided to live in Paris, in recent years he had spontaneously returned to the airport where he remained at the same terminal until his death a few days ago from natural causes. Probably after all these years spent at the airport, Merhan decided to die in a familiar place.