Paris: Mehran Karimi Nasseri, the Iranian exile whose time spent at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport inspired filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s movie ‘The Terminal’, died on Saturday of a heart attack.
Mehran, who also went by the name ‘Sir Alfred’, had been living in the airport again in recent weeks. He lived in Terminal 1 of Charles de Gaulle Airport and died at the Terminal 2F of the same airport, reported Variety.
So what was the Karimi Nasseri’s peculiar story?
Mehran first settled at the airport in 1988 after the United Kingdom denied him political asylum as a refugee despite the fact that he had a Scottish mother.
He apparently constantly had his luggage by his side and made the deliberate decision to live at the airport after claiming to be a stateless person.
18 years after staying there, Mehran left the airport for the first time when he was hospitalized in 2006, according to Variety. He used to spend his time reading, writing, and studying economics.
Nasseri’s situation inspired documentaries and films
Steven Spielberg decided to make the 2004 film ‘The Terminal’ based on his unconventional situation. It starred Tom Hanks as an Eastern European man who resides in New York’s John F. Kennedy airport after being denied entry to the United States.
Apart from that, Mehran, who was the subject of various documentaries and journalistic profiles, served as inspiration for the 1993 French film “Tombes du ciel,” starring Jean Rochefort.
He was reportedly born in the Iranian city of Masjed Soleiman in 1945, and his autobiography, titled ‘The Terminal Man’ was released in 2004.
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