An Iranian who lived there for 18 years died at the Paris airport: he inspired Spielberg's film 'Terminal'

Mahran Karimi Nasseri died at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport. He lived in Terminal 2F for 18 years from the late 1980s and returned there a few weeks before his death, reports Radio Liberty.

Photo: IStock

Nasseri was born in Iran in 1945. In 1974, he flew to London in search of his mother, who had left earlier. Relatives told Nasseri that she had gone to the UK.

Born in the oil-rich south of Iran, Nasseri was one of six children of a doctor who worked for an Anglo-Iranian oil company, according to the official account of his life, which he himself would later dispute.

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At the age of 23, shortly after his father died of cancer, his mother informed him that she was not his real mother, but that he was the result of an affair between his father and a Scottish nurse.

Posted to the UK, he spent three years studying Yugoslav studies at the University of Bradford and participated in a protest against the Shah that was cited as the reason he was stripped of his passport when he returned to Tehran.

Having received refugee status from Belgium in 1981, he tried to travel to the UK to find his real mother, who he believed lived in Glasgow. He threw away his identity papers aboard a ship bound for England, believing he would no longer need them, and ended up stateless in Limbo.

From 1977 to 1981, the Iranian tried to obtain asylum in six countries and eventually received it in Belgium, where he got a job in a library. In 1988, Nasseri decided to move to the UK - with a transfer in Paris. There, according to one version, he lost his documents. He arrived in London without documents and was sent back to France. The Iranian did not have the right to enter the country, and he settled at the airport.

Nasseri settled in terminal 2F. There he took several chairs. He had carts with him. He spent his days writing about his life in a notebook, reading newspapers and magazines.

In 1999, Nasseri received refugee status in France, but remained in the airport terminal until 2006.

The Iranian attracted the attention of the media and Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, who in 2004 made the tragicomedy “The Terminal” based on the story of Nasseri. The main roles in the film were played by Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Although the director's production company reportedly paid Nasseri a fee for the rights to his story, he is not named in the film or in any official promotional materials. TheGuardian. An autobiography written by British writer Andrew Donkin was published in 2004.

After the film's premiere, Nasseri began to be interviewed, he began calling himself "Sir Alfred" and met with the press several times a day.

In 2006, the Iranian fell ill and was taken to the hospital. After that, he lived in a hostel on the money received from the Spielberg film.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri died of a heart attack on November 12 at the airport's Terminal 2F around noon, according to a Paris airport authority official. According to the official, the police and medical team treated him but were unable to save him. Several thousand euros in cash were found with Nasseri.

The airport official clarified that Nasseri was always in the public area of ​​the airport and could go wherever he wanted at any time. The airport staff took care of the Iranian.

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At Charles de Gaulle Airport, he reportedly spent most of his time on the red bench on the lower floor of Terminal 1, refusing donations and gifts, with the exception of occasional food stamps from airport employees.

When asked by a journalist in 2003 if he was angry that he lost 15 years of his life in an airport terminal, he replied: “No, I'm not angry. I just want to know who my parents are."

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