Mehran Karim Nasseri, the Iranian man who inspired the film “The Terminal”, is dead

He had recently returned to live in terminal 2F of the Roissy-Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris. There where he had lived for 18 years, from 1988 to 2006, Mehran Karim Nasserion the red sofa with his big blue suitcase beside him, he had become a familiar face, friend of the airport staff, known by many and then famous for being told and played by Tom Hanks in the film “The Terminal”by Steven Spielberg, inspired by his real story.

Mehran Karimi NasseriChristophe Calais / Getty Images

There, between those large windows and the comings and goings of people from every airport, Mehran Karim Nasseri died on November 12 of natural causes. Almost as if he really wanted to sign the perfect ending to his story, which began when he was forced to leave Iran, at the age of 35, for his activism against the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the leader at the head of the country before the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Mehran Karimi NasseriChristophe Calais / Getty Images

He had traveled to various European countries in search of his mother but each time without success and indeed always getting expelled from the countries for lack of valid documents. It also happened in August 1988, when Nasseri was stopped by the border police at Terminal 1 of the «Charles de Gaulle», without the necessary documents that recognized him as a political refugee. It was at that moment that he decided not to leave anymore.

Sir Alfred Mehran, as he liked to be called, he stayed inside the airport until 1998. And even when he was offered the chance to get out of it, he decided not to leave what had become his home and (perhaps) even a little bit. family. He only left in 2006, forced by health problems. In the meantime, however, Steven Spielberg had already known his story and had decided to make a film of it. After the exit of “The Terminal”, Mehran Karim Nasseri, who were awarded the proceeds from the sale of the rights to his story, he moved to a shelter house in Paris for a while, before returning to the Terminal.

Other stories of Vanity Fair that may interest you:

-Apolidia, Armando Augello Cupi: “I only know that I was born in Sanremo”

– Demonstrations and repression: what is happening in Iran?

-Iran, protests for the death of Mahsa Amini, killed because she wore the veil badly

Source: Vanity Fair

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