The Strange tale of the real Viktor Navorski

The Terminal is a 2004 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks.

It was inspired by the true story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport in 1988 and became stranded there for 18 years.

Merhan decided to flee life in Iran - his home country - with much hope to find refuge in the UK.

But, because of bad luck combined with Nasseri’s own mistakes after the long stay at the Airport affected his mentality, he never got to reach his desired destination.

How Nasseri got into this situation

• Nasseri was born in Iran to an Iranian doctor, who worked for The Anglo-Persian Oil Company- in 1946, his mother was a Scottish nurse working for the same company.
• He studied at University of Bradford in England.
• After he returned to Iran, he claims he got expelled from his own country in 1977 due to protests against The Shah.
• Therefore, he decided to get British citizenship and live there.
• In 1988, he arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in France, and wanted to fly to the UK from there.
• Once at the Airport, he somehow lost his papers, therefore he couldn’t enter or exit any country, and had to wait at the Airport for his papers.

Daily life at Charles de Gaulle

• Mr. Nasseri fought boredom by spending his time reading English language magazines, studying economics, and smoking.
• His meals were mostly fast food from the airport's McDonald’s or gifts from passengers.
• To get clean he had to wake up at 5am daily to wash at the airport’s bathrooms, before it became too crowded.
• Mirhan Nasseri got many chances to leave the airport, and both Belgium and France agreed to grant him refugee status.
• He refused because they stated his nationality as Iranian, he wanted to be considered a British citizen, and used his real name, instead of Sir Alfred - his preferred name.

Did Nasseri tell the real story?

During investigations, the French authorities discovered that he mailed his papers to Belgian authorities, and that they weren't stolen as he stated.

• Also, his relatives and siblings paid him several visits, they said that his mother was Iranian, and not Scottish as he claimed.
• Apparently Naseri wanted to be someone else, to the extent that he preferred staying stranded at the airport for 18 years to admitting his nationality and birth name.
• In the end French authorities had to take him to a hospital, he went out to a foster home in Paris.
• He returned to living at the airport in September 2022, and died there of a heart attack in November 2022.

Sir Alfred in media and film

Nasseri’s story got featured in several documentaries like Waiting for Godot at Charles de Gaulle (2000), Here to Where (2001) and Sir Alfred of Charles de Gaulle Airport (2001).

He also was the inspiration for several films, like Lost in Transit (1994), and the contemporary opera Flight (1998).

Viktor Navorski vs Mehran Nasiri

• Nasseri was reportedly the inspiration for Steven Spielberg’s film The Terminal.
• DreamWorks company paid Nasseri $250,000 for the rights of his story, but ended up not using it.
• The movie is about a man who finds himself stranded at JFK Airport when he is denied entry to the United States and at the same time is unable to return to his native country because of a military coup.
• The main difference between Tom Hanks’ character and Merhan Naseri was that Viktor Navaroski (Hanks) wasn’t ashamed or didn’t hate his own country.

Overall, it was a sad story about a man trying to escape his circumstances, but got stuck at one point..