Iranian Refugee who Inspired Spielberg’s Film ‘The Terminal’ Dies Inside Paris Airport

[Carbon82]

RIP Mehran Karimi Nasseri. 

Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the man who had lived inside the Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport for years and inspired Steven Spielberg’s 2004 film “The Terminal”, died Saturday at the same airport.

Nasseri was pronounced dead by the airport medical team at Terminal 2F and had died of natural causes, a spokesperson for the airport told CNN.

Nasseri, an Iranian refugee, was en route to England via Belgium and France in 1988 when he lost his papers and could not board a flight nor leave the airport and was stuck in limbo until 2006.

He had “returned to live as a homeless person in the public area of the airport since mid-September, after a stay in a nursing home,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson added that Nasseri was an “iconic character” at the airport and that the “whole airport community was attached to him, and our staff looked after him as much as possible during many years, even if we would have preferred him to find a real shelter.”

While Nasseri’s story inside the airport was memorialized by Tom Hanks in the movie “The Terminal”, the spokesperson for the airport noted that: “The Spielberg film suggests that he was stuck in a transit zone at Paris-Charles de Gaulle. In reality, he spent several stays there, but always in the public area of the airport, he was always free to move around.”

[Inlinefour]

Rest in peace 🙏

[Arogab]

Fantastic guy, RIP

[Starry]

Love that movie. What an inspiration to make the best out of life even in the bleakest moments.

RIP.

[Rickster]

This guy seems quite attached to CDG. Apparently, he left the airport for treatment due to ailing health for a few years before going back to the CDG to die there.

Interestingly, he even turned down the french residency when it was offered to him.

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by Rickster

[Victor68]

Quite sad he has to live his life in such a condition. Freedom? 

[Windwaver]

Seems to me he is happy till the end.

[BanCoe]

Wonder how his family would be feeling of this news and his loooong overstay at the Airport too 

Edited November 15, 2022 by BanCoe

[Fitvip]

I just wonder how he could have stayed there for so long. The French have been quite lenient.

Is it possible to find one at Changi Airport?