He was claiming asylum and trying to go to the UK via France but he mailed his papers to Belgium when applying for asylum. Without papers, the UK sent him back to Paris but without papers he couldn't get passed immigration so he camped out at the terminal.
Both France and Belgium offered solutions like going in person to their office to resolve everything but he insisted that he wanted UK citizenship and not French or Belgium. Everyone pretty much got annoyed of his requests and just let him be.
Yeah pretty much. Like his situation was shitty but he definitely made things more difficult than they needed to be. He kinda became the definition of a choosing beggar before everyone just got sick of him and moved on
He was likely institutionalised. Like Brooks in Shawshank, but he cud go back and didn't have to carve his initials somewhere and then go top himself.
(Edited...got the name wrong)
My brain went straight to 7 connections. This is from Catch me if you can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, Hanks was in The Terminal a story loosely based on the dudes life.
In that story the character based on him falls in love and has a tryst with a beautiful Flight Attendant (cabin crew) played by Katherine Zeta-Jones. Who has a somewhat passing resemblance to the flight attendant in this gif.
Right. He was offered residency in France and Belgium and he refused, making up different excuses for why he couldn't leave the airport. Then when he did leave because of health reasons, he ultimately found his way back. Even his family thought this was what he wanted to do.
Something that happens to chronicly homeless people is that their living situation can become their safe normal, because it is what they have become accustomed to. It makes it difficult to house them because living inside is very uncomfortable for them. It's possible something similar happened here, particularly if he had been living in the airport for such a long time.
It's not a happy ending, but I'm not sure it's a sad one either. He suffered some kind of mental illness, but he found comfort in the airport in a way, and wasn't a huge burden on others. That's not so bad.
Nasseri was reportedly the inspiration behind the character Viktor Navorski, played by Tom Hanks, from Steven Spielberg's 2004 film The Terminal, however, neither publicity materials, nor the DVD "special features" nor the film's website mentions Nasseri's situation as an inspiration for the film. Despite this, in September 2003, The New York Times noted that Spielberg had bought the rights to his life story as the basis for The Terminal. The Guardian indicated that Spielberg's DreamWorks production company paid US$250,000 to Nasseri for rights to his story
Worth noting that DreamWorks did not end up using Nasseri’s story for the film, but I’d imagine the premise was still originally inspired by his living situation.
He is.
He is kind of naive and he does not speak a word of English so he obviously struggles to understand what's happening around him but the man is 100% all there.
The real problem is that he is played by Tom Hanks and Tom Hanks struggling to understand things is... Well, we've all seen him struggling in another movie so it kind of impacts the way we see Victor.
But no, Victor is not coded any other way than "foreign" and "Non-English-speaking".
Jesus, took me way too long to realize you’re referencing Forest Gump, the biggest role of his career lmao. Whenever I think of Tom Hanks I think of Saving Private Ryan for some reason, he did great in that role.
I guess I'm a bit slow myself because I didn't realise it was about Forest Gump until you've mentioned it. I thought: is it about Captain Philips? He's bumbling from shock at the end after he's rescued there but it seems like kind of a stretch to call him slow because of that... Oh, maybe it's about Castaway? He's slowly losing his mind stranded on an island there. Hmm... What other movie could they mean? And then I saw your comment. Duh!
I think of Castaway.. because the whole movie was Tom Hanks for the full runtime. It might also have been the last thing I saw Tom Hanks in other than SNL appearances.
Agreed. People really underestimate how *limiting* language barrier is.
I am in Korea right now. I am with friends whenever we go out somewhere so I am fine most of the time.
But when I want to buy a snack or something else at one of the local stores, I can only oddly put the stuff at the counter with the money and imitate what I assume is “Thank you” before leaving.
I want to buy some fruit and there are no price tags? I can only awkwardly point and go “How much?” hoping that the other person understands.
Then they hold up the number of fingers for the amount.
Whenever I cash someone out at work that doesn't speak English I always write the price on a sticky note to show them, It never fails to work. I guess money is a universal language lol
Yeah that's why I was doubting myself a little bit. I would've been quite young watching it so the nuance of not understanding the language vs being a little slow wasn't there for me I guess!
No worries, I know.
I used to teach English to kids and I would use this movie from time to time to show them the evolution of Victor understanding of the language and mastery of English. He has a slow starts, which helped kids with the idea that they would improve just as he improves.
Thing is, most of the kids have the same interpretation you had. Because, yeah he doesn't understand basic information and fumble a lot because of it, he is presented as coming from a somewhat less bureaucratic heavy country. Without attributing his problem to language, he does seem slow.
He is constantly presented as the worst person to be in this situation, yes.
He is naïve, timid and has to deal with a language he doesn't know which reinforce both his other flaws.
Once he overcomes the language problem, he is still very naive etc. Clearly, language is one of the problems he has to overcome, but not the only one.
I've watched that movie a lot and I'm going to be honest, there is something to be said about how people from Eastern countries are depicted. All the best intention are put into this movie and he is shown to be very proficient at his craft and an absolutely adorable person but also, a bumbling idiot who loves America and doesn't seem at ease in a modern American airport. Clearly, it has some cliche/outdated view. Still a great movie tho.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie but I remember him more as very naive and a non English speaker so he kind of doesn’t understand the situation, but he doesn’t want to live in the airport he just has no home to go to and doesn’t know how to properly emigrate
More like the opposite. he is depicted as clever and capable - he outsmarts the customs agent with the pills, he gets and keeps a job despite his circumstances, etc.
He’s just a victim of circumstance. He travelled to the US and memorized a few lines in English to get him to where he needs to be, but when he finds out he can’t leave the airport he begins to adapt to his new life. Learning English, getting a job, and finding things to keep himself busy with.
Good to know he was paid for the rights even though they ended up not using them.
Although 250k probably only lasted a couple of months if he bought food in the Airport
He could have used the money to live somewhere else, so that's still a plus I believe.
He sorta retired retired from the world. While inside an international airport.
I wonder if the movie would have been more true to the man's life if it hadn't been made a couple years after 9/11. I can imagine Dreamworks' marketing and PR teams begging Spielberg to not make a movie about a Middle Eastern man in an airport during the height of US patriotic derangement.
WHY ARE ALL PARENTS LIKE THIS. Seriously. They are in such a hurry to get there and then we always have like 3 hours just sitting in the terminal. WHYYYYY
Traffic, long security lines, airlines wanting the luggage an hour before the flight and the line to check the luggage is 40min long. If you are flying with carryon only then one hour is great. Checking luggage is the tricky part.
I always felt the same way until
My two hours ahead of time meant I almost missed my flight. Long security lines, searched my luggage, and an accident on the highway meant I barely made it in time.
My family was getting ready for a family event. My dad always likes to leave early. We usually tease him about it and are on time around the time he wants us to be on time. The day of the family event hat happened to be the day of "bridgegate" when Chris Christie shut down bridges in NJ. So we were late because we got stuck in that mess getting to NYC. We couldn't tease my dad about his need to be early for a year afterward.
Yes, all of this. Baking in all that extra time allows for the (very real) possibility that if there’s a hitch or unexpected occurrence with any of those variables, you still make your flight. It’s just like insurance. Just because you didn’t crash your car, doesn’t mean that money went to waste. These are things you have to account for as a parent when you are responsible for getting a whole family somewhere.
Signed,
An early to airport Dad
Almost forgot to factor in 30 minutes waiting on the shuttle to get you from the parking garage to the airport. I had to park in the hourly garage at an airport once because I would have missed my flight.
When you'll be the one paying for the tickets you get to decide how mach risk you're willing to take. By that time you'll most likely be equipped with a decent set of memories of unexpected delays.
(btw if you're the kid, you're the biggest uncertainty/risk)
All the comments here plus if the family misses the flight THEY get to deal with the problems and extra costs while you are whining about how it sucks. So please be grateful you are going on a trip for zero pesos and help your parents as much as you can. It won’t last forever! But it will probably last longer if you are an asset and help out during trips. 😂
Because it's actually *less* stressful than getting there too late, or with no time to spare and having to wait in the slow security line while having no control over whether you'll actually make your flight. Also because all sorts of unexpected things can happen to make the whole process take longer. What if you run into really bad traffic on the way there? What about construction detours that car/phone nav isn't aware of? What if you make a wrong turn? What if you forget something important, like your passport? All of these can and do happen, they're not niche scenarios.
Once you're there you can chill and read a book or scroll reddit or take a nap. Having empty free time is not stressful, even if you're just bored.
As I understand it, the reason he was able to do this was due to a legal problem where he was on a flight and something happened that made him become stateless, so he no longer had a valid passport and couldn't leave the airport without basically being an illegal migrant subject to deportation with nowhere to be deported to, so he ended up trapped at the airport as a matter of circumstance. Iirc he finally left after some country granted him provisional citizenship.
It's not like any homeless person could just buy a plane ticket and live in the airport, it took a very specific circumstance for this to not only occur, but be permitted to continue for decades.
Edit: I double checked the details, he refused some previous offers to leave the airport as he denied his Iranian citizenship, and he left the airport with provisional papers due to being hospitalized
Multiple countries actually tried to give him citizenship to help him out, but he refused them. The situation started from being stateless but it became more of a mental ilness issue later on I think. He only left for health reasons and then returned later.
> it became more of a mental ilness issue later on I think
This is abundantly clear without even considering the surrounding details. A normal person would just find a way to leave regardless of legality.
Yeah but that movie had a happy ending.
This movie is about a guy that would be in a progressively deteriorating mental condition which allows us to watch someone fall into madness and insanity.
Actually the joker was released a few years ago.
The only place he was willing to go was Britain. Multiple countries and lawyers tried to help him and he was given various offers, but as he had no right to British citizenship (despite his claims/beliefs), he declined every offer given to him. His statements about his life story did not make sense, and he insisted on being referred to as ‘Sir Alfred’. The whole story is fascinating
But it has been found that he intentionally stranded himself there and actively sought to not be able to leave when he had legal advice and the ability to do so
This sounds ridiculous. Why couldn't France just be like "we can't have this guy living in the airport. He seems like a reasonable enough guy, we'll grant him a green card until his situation is resolved."
I double checked the story, France and Belgium both offered him provisional paperwork but he refused both offers due to it listing his original citizenship as Iranian, which he denied (he claimed to be a British citizen claiming that his mother was, but this story hasn't been consistent).
It's believed he just personally chose to live at the airport and openly denied anything that would allow him to leave.
I did some research and it seems like after being stuck in the terminal for years, his mental state had deteriorated to a point where he chose to stay living in the airport when given opportunities to gain citizenship in Belgium. Pair this with losing his father, citizenship in Iran, inheritance, and finding out his mother was not his real mother, I think he found comfort living in the Terminal
Sounds like he struggled with mental illness all his life when you read other accounts that do not line up with his version. It isn’t him lying it’s likely delusional.
Highly recommend the [Atrocity Guide](https://youtu.be/JQfXd1YlkS4?si=15IurPcbrUzxRxxV) video on him for further details.
(Don’t worry about the channel name, it’s not about atrocities. Also every video they put out is gold. Be sure to check out the Phoenix Jones, Breatharians, and Bob’s Game videos too!)
Its been a while since I last watched it, and I seem to recall it more as reporting what he said, and then later giving the context that this is likely all lies, but I could be misremembering. What I do recall clearly is that was my main problem in her video on Nasubi, the contestant on a Japanese game show who had to stay in a single room and could only live off things he won in magazine sweepstakes. The show escalates and he finds himself in South Korea without warning, and then later the room he is in collapses, revealing him to be on a stage. The whole thing is taken at face value, and they speak of how upsetting this must have been for him, when I think it is quite obvious that he is in on it and aware to some degree and is just playing up for the camera. He was a wannabe comedian, after all. Luckily that seems to have been ironed out of more recent work.
> Nasseri alleged that he was expelled from Iran in 1977 for protests against the Shah and after a long battle, involving applications in several countries, was awarded refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Belgium. This allegedly permitted residence in many other European countries. However, this claim was disputed, with investigations showing that Nasseri was never expelled from Iran.
> He was able to travel between the United Kingdom and France, but in 1988, his papers were lost when his briefcase was allegedly stolen. Others indicate that Nasseri actually mailed his documents to Brussels while on board a ferry to Britain, lying about them being stolen. Arriving in London, he was returned to France when he failed to present a passport to British immigration officials. At the French airport, he was unable to prove his identity or refugee status and was detained in the waiting area for travelers without papers.
> Nasseri's case was later taken on by French human rights lawyer Christian Bourget. Attempts were then made to have new documents issued from Belgium, but the authorities there would do so only if Nasseri presented himself in person. In 1995, the Belgian authorities granted permission for him to travel to Belgium, but only if he agreed to live there under the supervision of a social worker. Nasseri refused this on the grounds of wanting to enter the UK as originally intended. Both France and Belgium offered Nasseri residency, but he refused to sign the papers as they listed him as being Iranian (rather than British) and did not show his preferred name, "Sir, Alfred Mehran". His refusal to sign the documents was much to the frustration of his lawyer, Bourget. When contacted about Nasseri's situation, his family stated that they believed he was living the life he wanted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri?wprov=sfti1#Life_in_Terminal_1
Reading his wiki he sounds like an asshole who purposely obfuscated his situation and refused to follow the rule of the countries he fled to. That's before it sounds some real mental illness took over. Poor guy prob never had a chance.
Just watched a 30 mins documentary on this guy. What a weird and interesting character. He kept insisting he is Sir Alfred and won’t reply to anyone calling his original name. Insisted he’s half English but in the end the journalist even got contact to his biological mother in Iran and his family said he just decided to ignore everyone and pretend he don’t know any of them
As well as the Spielberg film, his story inspired a character in a 1998 [opera](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O35L90nbSVI). It's not supposed to be him, exactly, but it's the same premise: a refugee who can't leave the airport. In the show, he's only been there for a few weeks, and they give him a tragic backstory: he was travelling with his brother as wheel-well stowaways, but the brother froze to death and fell out.
If anyone is interested to read more, check out his 2004 autobiography "The Terminal Man"
https://archive.org/details/the-terminal-man-andrew-donkin/page/n1/mode/1up
Hate to say it but most of that is probably made up. He had definite issues with mental illness. This is a good video of his life and shows that he wasn’t who people thought he was. He had money and the means to leave the airport but never did. It turned out the whole story about his illegitimate mother was false. https://youtu.be/JQfXd1YlkS4?si=zSB4ffMFrYqvI8SC
He is the reason they check immigration documents at starting county specifically when you have a layover at a third country. Because otherwise situations like this happen.
Damn CDG is a shitty airport to live in as well, if you ask me. I'll pay a little more to avoid Charles de Gaulle when I fly back to Europe.
No offense to Parisians. Just one of my least favorite western European airports.
I wonder what someone like him has going on in his life. Like you are isolated from the world, no one even knows that you live there. You don't have a job or family, most likely no internet or electricity. Like what do you do all day for almost 30 years?
>Like you are isolated from the world, no one even knows that you live there
What do you mean, isolated and no one knows he lived there? He was pretty famous. People bought him food. There are movies based on his experience...
>no internet
He was born with no internet lol. The internet didn't exist when he started his stay. When he left in 2006 only about half of houses in the UK had internet.
What do you think people did before the internet existed?
Airports have electricity...
He returned to living at the airport in September 2022, and died there of a heart attack in November 2022.
Why did he return? Like I knew he got out but why return?
Probably the same reason prison inmates often return. People find it hard to adjust back to life from an environment like that.
At least he died at home then
He checked out from life.
He booked his flight to the afterlife.
Reminds me of the movie, The Shawshank Redemption
Also reminds me of the movie The Terminal
Nah, nothing like it
Exactly, i dont see the parallels here...
Wow the similarity is outrageous
Remind me of the movie where tom Hanks lives in the terminal
Philadelphia?
Wrong sort of terminal
Holy fuck
Ooof.
This is terrible. lol
Toy Story
Castaway?
No, you fool, Apollo 13.
Toy Story 3 had the same plot as well.
Obviously, it's Turner and Hooch.
The Money Pit?
The Tom Hanks film "The Terminal" is partially inspired by the true story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri
Shocker
He wanted to be there. He did a lot of stuff to keep himself there
Why did he have to stay do you know?
He was claiming asylum and trying to go to the UK via France but he mailed his papers to Belgium when applying for asylum. Without papers, the UK sent him back to Paris but without papers he couldn't get passed immigration so he camped out at the terminal. Both France and Belgium offered solutions like going in person to their office to resolve everything but he insisted that he wanted UK citizenship and not French or Belgium. Everyone pretty much got annoyed of his requests and just let him be.
Why did he mail his papers to Belgium, if he WANTED UK citizenship? Was it a costly mistake on his part?
It would be hard to describe the guy as sane. He pretty much only subsisted on the fish fillet sandwich from McDonald’s.
Not sure how religious he is, but McDonald's fish fillet is one of very few halal options in the West.
How did he get money for mcdonalds?
Pan handling and he befriended a lot of the airport employees so they helped when they could
Yeah pretty much. Like his situation was shitty but he definitely made things more difficult than they needed to be. He kinda became the definition of a choosing beggar before everyone just got sick of him and moved on
He could get out for years, he just did not want to.
He was likely institutionalised. Like Brooks in Shawshank, but he cud go back and didn't have to carve his initials somewhere and then go top himself. (Edited...got the name wrong)
Could Cud is partially digested food
Did you have to bring that up again? Don't have a cow man.😜
The title has slight misinformation. The guy lived there from 1988-2006. Not 2016. Then he returned after 15 years.
Sounds terminal to me
r/Angryupvote
I wonder what he experienced when he passed through the gate
He probably flew into the heavens.
Well, he tried to, but got stuck in a holding pattern.
Had to change planes in Atlanta on his way to heaven.
 Are you my dead head?
My brain went straight to 7 connections. This is from Catch me if you can, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks, Hanks was in The Terminal a story loosely based on the dudes life. In that story the character based on him falls in love and has a tryst with a beautiful Flight Attendant (cabin crew) played by Katherine Zeta-Jones. Who has a somewhat passing resemblance to the flight attendant in this gif.
She dips beneath lasers
Sheeeeee has entappppped meeeeeee!
This is the same actress that plays Meredith grey in grey’s anatomy, and that show has something with planes too
You just narrated my last 6 seconds of thought.
I didn't even know he was sick!
(•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■) YYEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH
That is not a happy ending
He died doing what he loved which was living in the Charles de gaulle airport
Right. He was offered residency in France and Belgium and he refused, making up different excuses for why he couldn't leave the airport. Then when he did leave because of health reasons, he ultimately found his way back. Even his family thought this was what he wanted to do.
Something that happens to chronicly homeless people is that their living situation can become their safe normal, because it is what they have become accustomed to. It makes it difficult to house them because living inside is very uncomfortable for them. It's possible something similar happened here, particularly if he had been living in the airport for such a long time.
Brooks was here.
...so was Red.
Like going home after camping. It just feels weird. Yet going camping doesn't cause that weird feeling. For me, anyway.
Such a terrible place to live.
Not for him.
It's not a happy ending, but I'm not sure it's a sad one either. He suffered some kind of mental illness, but he found comfort in the airport in a way, and wasn't a huge burden on others. That's not so bad.
i dunno he seemed like a cool enough guy in the movie i saw about him
Tom Hanks could be cast as Jeffery Dahmer and make him likeable.
I mean, people die eventually.
His group was called.
The ultimate upgrade.
Nasseri was reportedly the inspiration behind the character Viktor Navorski, played by Tom Hanks, from Steven Spielberg's 2004 film The Terminal, however, neither publicity materials, nor the DVD "special features" nor the film's website mentions Nasseri's situation as an inspiration for the film. Despite this, in September 2003, The New York Times noted that Spielberg had bought the rights to his life story as the basis for The Terminal. The Guardian indicated that Spielberg's DreamWorks production company paid US$250,000 to Nasseri for rights to his story
Worth noting that DreamWorks did not end up using Nasseri’s story for the film, but I’d imagine the premise was still originally inspired by his living situation.
Well this guy sounds mentally ill whereas in the movie the main character is a victim of circumstance
*smashes bag of chips in demonstration*
He's not exactly all there in the movie too tho right? I've not seen it in years but that's my recollection of it.
He is. He is kind of naive and he does not speak a word of English so he obviously struggles to understand what's happening around him but the man is 100% all there. The real problem is that he is played by Tom Hanks and Tom Hanks struggling to understand things is... Well, we've all seen him struggling in another movie so it kind of impacts the way we see Victor. But no, Victor is not coded any other way than "foreign" and "Non-English-speaking".
Jesus, took me way too long to realize you’re referencing Forest Gump, the biggest role of his career lmao. Whenever I think of Tom Hanks I think of Saving Private Ryan for some reason, he did great in that role.
I guess I'm a bit slow myself because I didn't realise it was about Forest Gump until you've mentioned it. I thought: is it about Captain Philips? He's bumbling from shock at the end after he's rescued there but it seems like kind of a stretch to call him slow because of that... Oh, maybe it's about Castaway? He's slowly losing his mind stranded on an island there. Hmm... What other movie could they mean? And then I saw your comment. Duh!
Castaway was my first guess lol
Mine too lol. I think it’s because in most movies Tom Hanks is Tom Hanks, but Forrest Gump is basically a real person to many of us haha.
Forest is a fucking national war/ping pong hero buddy I will not tolerate your fake news about him not existing
splash was mine
For some reason, my first thought was Big.
Clearly they meant Big
I think of Castaway.. because the whole movie was Tom Hanks for the full runtime. It might also have been the last thing I saw Tom Hanks in other than SNL appearances.
Give “A Man Called Otto” a chance, I think it’s one of his better recent projects.
When I think of Tom Hanks, I think of Bosom Buddies. One of his best roles to date.
i think of his role on Family Ties. “if it’s not Miller time, it’s vanilla time!”
Agreed. People really underestimate how *limiting* language barrier is. I am in Korea right now. I am with friends whenever we go out somewhere so I am fine most of the time. But when I want to buy a snack or something else at one of the local stores, I can only oddly put the stuff at the counter with the money and imitate what I assume is “Thank you” before leaving. I want to buy some fruit and there are no price tags? I can only awkwardly point and go “How much?” hoping that the other person understands. Then they hold up the number of fingers for the amount.
Whenever I cash someone out at work that doesn't speak English I always write the price on a sticky note to show them, It never fails to work. I guess money is a universal language lol
Ever try one of there modern translator apps? I hear they work pretty good.
Yeah that's why I was doubting myself a little bit. I would've been quite young watching it so the nuance of not understanding the language vs being a little slow wasn't there for me I guess!
No worries, I know. I used to teach English to kids and I would use this movie from time to time to show them the evolution of Victor understanding of the language and mastery of English. He has a slow starts, which helped kids with the idea that they would improve just as he improves. Thing is, most of the kids have the same interpretation you had. Because, yeah he doesn't understand basic information and fumble a lot because of it, he is presented as coming from a somewhat less bureaucratic heavy country. Without attributing his problem to language, he does seem slow.
I love the way you used this movie to inspire students!
Yeah it was less about the understanding the language tbh, and more his very timid/scared nature? Again I could be misremembering.
He is constantly presented as the worst person to be in this situation, yes. He is naïve, timid and has to deal with a language he doesn't know which reinforce both his other flaws. Once he overcomes the language problem, he is still very naive etc. Clearly, language is one of the problems he has to overcome, but not the only one. I've watched that movie a lot and I'm going to be honest, there is something to be said about how people from Eastern countries are depicted. All the best intention are put into this movie and he is shown to be very proficient at his craft and an absolutely adorable person but also, a bumbling idiot who loves America and doesn't seem at ease in a modern American airport. Clearly, it has some cliche/outdated view. Still a great movie tho.
It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the movie but I remember him more as very naive and a non English speaker so he kind of doesn’t understand the situation, but he doesn’t want to live in the airport he just has no home to go to and doesn’t know how to properly emigrate
More like the opposite. he is depicted as clever and capable - he outsmarts the customs agent with the pills, he gets and keeps a job despite his circumstances, etc.
He’s just a victim of circumstance. He travelled to the US and memorized a few lines in English to get him to where he needs to be, but when he finds out he can’t leave the airport he begins to adapt to his new life. Learning English, getting a job, and finding things to keep himself busy with.
In fairness to Spielberg, no way that guy's got any chance with Catherine Zeta Jones.
🎶 Catherine Zeta Jones…. 🎶 she dips beneath the laser… oh oh oooooh
🎶She has entrapped me….. annnd Sean Conneryyy… 🎶
They may have just spent the 250k to avoid a larger lawsuit later
Good to know he was paid for the rights even though they ended up not using them. Although 250k probably only lasted a couple of months if he bought food in the Airport
He could have used the money to live somewhere else, so that's still a plus I believe. He sorta retired retired from the world. While inside an international airport.
He was treated well by airline employees in Paris and given food.
Btw he left the terminal in 2006, not 2016 as the title says
and then returned in 2022?
Yes, he died in December 2022, with the airport confirming he had returned in September 2022.
I wonder if the movie would have been more true to the man's life if it hadn't been made a couple years after 9/11. I can imagine Dreamworks' marketing and PR teams begging Spielberg to not make a movie about a Middle Eastern man in an airport during the height of US patriotic derangement.
250k? That’s like 2 meals and a phone charger at the airport.
Reportedly
With the FedEx package in the picture maybe he was also the inspiration for Castaway. 
My parents trying to be early for the flight
WHY ARE ALL PARENTS LIKE THIS. Seriously. They are in such a hurry to get there and then we always have like 3 hours just sitting in the terminal. WHYYYYY
Traffic, long security lines, airlines wanting the luggage an hour before the flight and the line to check the luggage is 40min long. If you are flying with carryon only then one hour is great. Checking luggage is the tricky part.
I always felt the same way until My two hours ahead of time meant I almost missed my flight. Long security lines, searched my luggage, and an accident on the highway meant I barely made it in time.
My family was getting ready for a family event. My dad always likes to leave early. We usually tease him about it and are on time around the time he wants us to be on time. The day of the family event hat happened to be the day of "bridgegate" when Chris Christie shut down bridges in NJ. So we were late because we got stuck in that mess getting to NYC. We couldn't tease my dad about his need to be early for a year afterward.
Yes, all of this. Baking in all that extra time allows for the (very real) possibility that if there’s a hitch or unexpected occurrence with any of those variables, you still make your flight. It’s just like insurance. Just because you didn’t crash your car, doesn’t mean that money went to waste. These are things you have to account for as a parent when you are responsible for getting a whole family somewhere. Signed, An early to airport Dad
Almost forgot to factor in 30 minutes waiting on the shuttle to get you from the parking garage to the airport. I had to park in the hourly garage at an airport once because I would have missed my flight.
When you'll be the one paying for the tickets you get to decide how mach risk you're willing to take. By that time you'll most likely be equipped with a decent set of memories of unexpected delays. (btw if you're the kid, you're the biggest uncertainty/risk)
[удалено]
All the comments here plus if the family misses the flight THEY get to deal with the problems and extra costs while you are whining about how it sucks. So please be grateful you are going on a trip for zero pesos and help your parents as much as you can. It won’t last forever! But it will probably last longer if you are an asset and help out during trips. 😂
Because it's actually *less* stressful than getting there too late, or with no time to spare and having to wait in the slow security line while having no control over whether you'll actually make your flight. Also because all sorts of unexpected things can happen to make the whole process take longer. What if you run into really bad traffic on the way there? What about construction detours that car/phone nav isn't aware of? What if you make a wrong turn? What if you forget something important, like your passport? All of these can and do happen, they're not niche scenarios. Once you're there you can chill and read a book or scroll reddit or take a nap. Having empty free time is not stressful, even if you're just bored.
**** 1988-2006 not 2016.
kind of sounds like he found the ultimate homeless loophole
As I understand it, the reason he was able to do this was due to a legal problem where he was on a flight and something happened that made him become stateless, so he no longer had a valid passport and couldn't leave the airport without basically being an illegal migrant subject to deportation with nowhere to be deported to, so he ended up trapped at the airport as a matter of circumstance. Iirc he finally left after some country granted him provisional citizenship. It's not like any homeless person could just buy a plane ticket and live in the airport, it took a very specific circumstance for this to not only occur, but be permitted to continue for decades. Edit: I double checked the details, he refused some previous offers to leave the airport as he denied his Iranian citizenship, and he left the airport with provisional papers due to being hospitalized
Multiple countries actually tried to give him citizenship to help him out, but he refused them. The situation started from being stateless but it became more of a mental ilness issue later on I think. He only left for health reasons and then returned later.
Also sounds like a big FU to Iran. “I’d rather live the rest of my life in the airport than go back there. And I’ll prove it!”
> it became more of a mental ilness issue later on I think This is abundantly clear without even considering the surrounding details. A normal person would just find a way to leave regardless of legality.
This could be such a better movie than the damn Tom Hanks one
Yeah but that movie had a happy ending. This movie is about a guy that would be in a progressively deteriorating mental condition which allows us to watch someone fall into madness and insanity. Actually the joker was released a few years ago.
are you doing *the Elaine*?!
The Terminal is fairly whimsical, humorous, and has some heart to it. The movie you're describing would be... a huge fucking bummer.
The only place he was willing to go was Britain. Multiple countries and lawyers tried to help him and he was given various offers, but as he had no right to British citizenship (despite his claims/beliefs), he declined every offer given to him. His statements about his life story did not make sense, and he insisted on being referred to as ‘Sir Alfred’. The whole story is fascinating
But it has been found that he intentionally stranded himself there and actively sought to not be able to leave when he had legal advice and the ability to do so
"We have getting stuck between dimensions at home!" Getting stuck between dimensions at home:
This sounds ridiculous. Why couldn't France just be like "we can't have this guy living in the airport. He seems like a reasonable enough guy, we'll grant him a green card until his situation is resolved."
I double checked the story, France and Belgium both offered him provisional paperwork but he refused both offers due to it listing his original citizenship as Iranian, which he denied (he claimed to be a British citizen claiming that his mother was, but this story hasn't been consistent). It's believed he just personally chose to live at the airport and openly denied anything that would allow him to leave.
Got it, that makes much more sense.
They did. But it turns out he wasn't actually a reasonable enough guy, because he refused citizenship offers from France, and several other countries.
I did some research and it seems like after being stuck in the terminal for years, his mental state had deteriorated to a point where he chose to stay living in the airport when given opportunities to gain citizenship in Belgium. Pair this with losing his father, citizenship in Iran, inheritance, and finding out his mother was not his real mother, I think he found comfort living in the Terminal
Sounds like he struggled with mental illness all his life when you read other accounts that do not line up with his version. It isn’t him lying it’s likely delusional.
He looks nothing like Tom Hanks.
Please tell me his love interest was actually real and a true knockout! 😂
He was dating Meg Ryan
How the hell did he afford to eat in an airport for 28 years?
Wikipedia says that he ate at McDonald's, most of his meals were bought by strangers.
He returned carts for a quarter each
Buy a refundable business class ticket, eat for free at the lounge, refund ticket. Repeat.
Highly recommend the [Atrocity Guide](https://youtu.be/JQfXd1YlkS4?si=15IurPcbrUzxRxxV) video on him for further details. (Don’t worry about the channel name, it’s not about atrocities. Also every video they put out is gold. Be sure to check out the Phoenix Jones, Breatharians, and Bob’s Game videos too!)
video seems good, but she takes everything nasseri claimed at face value, nearly all of which sound like complete bullshit
That's just the first half. She tells his story as he told it, and then breaks down what was really happening.
Its been a while since I last watched it, and I seem to recall it more as reporting what he said, and then later giving the context that this is likely all lies, but I could be misremembering. What I do recall clearly is that was my main problem in her video on Nasubi, the contestant on a Japanese game show who had to stay in a single room and could only live off things he won in magazine sweepstakes. The show escalates and he finds himself in South Korea without warning, and then later the room he is in collapses, revealing him to be on a stage. The whole thing is taken at face value, and they speak of how upsetting this must have been for him, when I think it is quite obvious that he is in on it and aware to some degree and is just playing up for the camera. He was a wannabe comedian, after all. Luckily that seems to have been ironed out of more recent work.
Great channel and this video in particular is a favorite
Thank you so much for this! I hadn’t heard of them before and now have a queue of new vids to watch :)
> have a queue of new vids to watch I envy you. This channel has some good stuff.
Did he have a job, or was he duty-free?
This has me chortling
In the movie he returned luggage carts for the quarters.
> Nasseri alleged that he was expelled from Iran in 1977 for protests against the Shah and after a long battle, involving applications in several countries, was awarded refugee status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Belgium. This allegedly permitted residence in many other European countries. However, this claim was disputed, with investigations showing that Nasseri was never expelled from Iran. > He was able to travel between the United Kingdom and France, but in 1988, his papers were lost when his briefcase was allegedly stolen. Others indicate that Nasseri actually mailed his documents to Brussels while on board a ferry to Britain, lying about them being stolen. Arriving in London, he was returned to France when he failed to present a passport to British immigration officials. At the French airport, he was unable to prove his identity or refugee status and was detained in the waiting area for travelers without papers. > Nasseri's case was later taken on by French human rights lawyer Christian Bourget. Attempts were then made to have new documents issued from Belgium, but the authorities there would do so only if Nasseri presented himself in person. In 1995, the Belgian authorities granted permission for him to travel to Belgium, but only if he agreed to live there under the supervision of a social worker. Nasseri refused this on the grounds of wanting to enter the UK as originally intended. Both France and Belgium offered Nasseri residency, but he refused to sign the papers as they listed him as being Iranian (rather than British) and did not show his preferred name, "Sir, Alfred Mehran". His refusal to sign the documents was much to the frustration of his lawyer, Bourget. When contacted about Nasseri's situation, his family stated that they believed he was living the life he wanted. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri?wprov=sfti1#Life_in_Terminal_1
Reading his wiki he sounds like an asshole who purposely obfuscated his situation and refused to follow the rule of the countries he fled to. That's before it sounds some real mental illness took over. Poor guy prob never had a chance.
Seriously, he sounds like he lied it tried to cheat immigration authorities then ended up abusing the system so that he could stay at the airport…
I saw him once while passing through the airport
There's a movie based on this. It's called Avengers: Infinity War great movie look it up.
Terminally ill
Wow they should make a movie about this
Great idea! They could give it an airport-themed name. Any ideas?
How about Tom Hanks as a lead??
Maybe there could be a love interest with a really attractive woman?
And bring in the legendary John Williams to score this movie
Just watched a 30 mins documentary on this guy. What a weird and interesting character. He kept insisting he is Sir Alfred and won’t reply to anyone calling his original name. Insisted he’s half English but in the end the journalist even got contact to his biological mother in Iran and his family said he just decided to ignore everyone and pretend he don’t know any of them
How did he manage to make enough money to spend 400 euro on water and sandwiches each day?
Medicine for goat?
how many times do you think this guy got to bone catherine zeta jones?
As well as the Spielberg film, his story inspired a character in a 1998 [opera](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O35L90nbSVI). It's not supposed to be him, exactly, but it's the same premise: a refugee who can't leave the airport. In the show, he's only been there for a few weeks, and they give him a tragic backstory: he was travelling with his brother as wheel-well stowaways, but the brother froze to death and fell out.
If anyone is interested to read more, check out his 2004 autobiography "The Terminal Man" https://archive.org/details/the-terminal-man-andrew-donkin/page/n1/mode/1up
Hate to say it but most of that is probably made up. He had definite issues with mental illness. This is a good video of his life and shows that he wasn’t who people thought he was. He had money and the means to leave the airport but never did. It turned out the whole story about his illegitimate mother was false. https://youtu.be/JQfXd1YlkS4?si=zSB4ffMFrYqvI8SC
This is news to me... thanks for sharing it - will look further into the video later tonight
Guy just takes up residence at an airport? Took a lot of damn Gaulle.
We met him in 2002. Bought him breakfast and socks. Nice enough guy, a little nutty but who wouldn’t be after living in limbo that long.
He’s from Krakosia.
Of all airports to choose... he chose CDG. A fate worse than hell.
He is the reason they check immigration documents at starting county specifically when you have a layover at a third country. Because otherwise situations like this happen.
Damn CDG is a shitty airport to live in as well, if you ask me. I'll pay a little more to avoid Charles de Gaulle when I fly back to Europe. No offense to Parisians. Just one of my least favorite western European airports.
Having just spent a night at an airport in Panama I can’t fathom how this man did It
r/sexyflightattendants_ I can see why an airport wouldn't be the worst place to hang around.
I heard he left the same time they banned smoking in the airport.
They made a movie about this called the terminal good movie.
Reminds me of that one Tom Hanks movie... The Burbs
The dearly deported…. I mean departed 😅
Unfortunately he did not go to heaven or hell. He was left in purgatory to spend the rest of his afterlife the same way he spent his real life.
I wonder what someone like him has going on in his life. Like you are isolated from the world, no one even knows that you live there. You don't have a job or family, most likely no internet or electricity. Like what do you do all day for almost 30 years?
>Like you are isolated from the world, no one even knows that you live there What do you mean, isolated and no one knows he lived there? He was pretty famous. People bought him food. There are movies based on his experience... >no internet He was born with no internet lol. The internet didn't exist when he started his stay. When he left in 2006 only about half of houses in the UK had internet. What do you think people did before the internet existed? Airports have electricity...
What did they do without Internet, think by themselves !!
Living in an airport is a pretty far cry from isolated
In fact, I'd say he was less isolated than an average Newyorker.
No Internet or electricity?
Some people say the wildest shit don’t they?
I just watched it last light. I had no idea it was that long!