The Terminal; The Story of a Destinationless Traveler

The Terminal; The Story of a Destinationless Traveler - 2003-09-24. It is said that anyone who has passed through Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris has seen him. An Iranian middle-aged man who has spent 15 years on a plastic bench, indifferent to the astonished and questioning looks of passengers and flight attendants in that bustling terminal, surrounded by a mountain of magazines and newspapers. Mehran Karimi is the only destinationless traveler at an airport. Karimi was introduced to the world through news and reports that occasionally appeared in international publications about his difficult life, drawing attention to him. However, I can confidently say that few would have thought that one day the life of this migrant compatriot would become the subject of the latest film by the greatest director in Hollywood. Steven Spielberg, the master director of American cinema, is set to turn the strange and astonishing story of Mehran Karimi, his lost identity, and his uncertainty in the maze of bureaucracy, along with his insistence on continuing this strange life, into a cinematic work. Spielberg has named this film 'The Terminal,' and Tom Hanks will play the lead role. Mehran Karimi, now 58 years old, received political asylum from Belgium in 1981 and traveled without hassle to Britain and France for seven years afterward. However, in 1988, he was no longer allowed to travel from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to London because he had no documents with him. He himself has said that his documents were stolen in the Paris Metro. In any case, Karimi was transferred to the area designated for undocumented travelers at the airport and has ultimately chosen to remain there for years. Karimi, with a mix of Persian accent and French he learned from the airport's loudspeakers, told a New York Times reporter that until he came here, he was not interesting to anyone. According to the website (Baztab) and quoting the New York Times, in fact, reaching the reality of Karimi's story is not easy, as he has said different things about his ancestry over the years. At one point, he said his mother was Swedish. Later, he claimed she was English. These days, he completely denies his Iranian origins and refuses to talk about his childhood in Tehran. In Spielberg's new film, which is set to begin filming this week, Tom Hanks plays someone who becomes a stateless refugee due to the sudden disappearance of his country from the political scene. A desperate stranger in New York Airport. However, Hanks ultimately escapes this predicament with the help of Catherine Zeta-Jones, who plays his love interest, and reaches a new height of success; a fortune that has never been with Mehran Karimi. Interestingly, Karimi may be one of the few inhabitants of the Earth who has never seen a Spielberg film! When the New York Times reporter asks him about Tom Hanks, Karimi replies, 'Is this guy Japanese?'