10 Disturbing True Stories Behind Famous Movies
5. The Real Refugee Spent 18 Years Stuck In An Airport - The Terminal
Steven Spielberg's feel-good 2004 dramedy The Terminal revolves around Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks), an Eastern European man who is left trapped in New York's John F. Kennedy Airport terminal when he is both denied entry to the U.S. and his citizenship back home is invalidated by a military coup there.
In Spielberg's film, Viktor gets something of a happy ending. The war in his home nation of Krakozhia ends, and before he returns home, he's able to set foot briefly on American soil to collect the last of the 57 jazz musicians' autographs he's been collecting to honour his late father.
In the movie Viktor only spends nine months stuck in the airport, yet the real-life inspiration is decidedly more grim.
In 1988, Iranian refugee Mehran Karimi Nasseri attempted to fly to the UK by way of France, though was ultimately sent back to Paris after losing his refugee passport.
And so, Nasseri was effectively stuck in limbo and spent the next 18 years residing in Terminal 1 of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport. He never got to set foot on British soil, and his residency in the airport only ended when he was hospitalised with illness.
Since 2008, Nasseri has lived in a Paris shelter, and to make matters worse, he was reportedly paid $250,000 by Spielberg for the rights to his story, yet has never been able to access the funds due to his lack of identifying documentation.
Compare this to Hanks' Viktor Navorski, who spent a fraction of that time in the airport, achieved emotional catharsis for his dad, and even got to kiss a beautiful flight attendant (Catherine Zeta-Jones). To call Spielberg's take sanitised doesn't quite do it justice.