The curious case of Merhan Karimi Nasseri

I saw the new movie The Terminal over the weekend. I liked parts of it, but most of it annoyed me: the Spielbergian cuteness, Tom Hanks’ indecipherable accent, the presence of Catherine Zeta-Jones (lord, she was miscast). Most of all, it was too damned long, and ultimately rather pointless–a man is stuck in the airport, and it becomes a heartwarming story. OK, so then what?

But in perusing some reviews after the fact, several critics mentioned offhandedly that the movie was based on a real-life case, a man who’d been living in Charles de Gaulle Airport since 1988. Like many, many others who have read the same line or will do so after the fact, I shook my head in disbelief. But indeed, it’s true, showing that yet again, truth trumps fiction for the strangeness factor.

Merhan Karimi Nasseri grew up during the height of the Shah’s rule of Iran, and he was an ardent protestor of that regime. Summarily kicked out in 1977, he bounced around various European countries, claiming refugee status or seeking aslyum. He wanted to get to Britain, and had the papers to do so–but his bag was stolen on a train. Deciding to fly to Britain anyway, he got as far as Charles de Gaulle. But without documentation, he couldn’t go anywhere, and no one could prove where he was from (officially, that is, but I guess demanding a birth certificate from the Ayatollah’s regime may well have proved a difficult task.) So he was a man without a country, and Terminal 1 became his home.

Nasseri’s case, being so odd, became a bit of a cause celebre, and the subject of a couple of French movies, several documentaries, countless interviews, and many articles.

His plight should have had a happy ending. And as Jay Allen, writing on his blog Underground Dialectic, explains, it did. Or so people thought:

Finally, in September of 1999 – eleven years after first being stuck in the French airport – Nasseri was given French residency (finally!) and the ability to travel internationally. However, the cards list “Sir Alfred’s” citizenship as Iranian, which he has a problem with, so Nasseri refuses to sign them and therefore still cannot leave the airport. Obviously, Nasseri now has some mental problems likely caused by his injust incarceration. It’s now almost 2004. At this point, he’s become somewhat of a celebrity in Charles De Gaulle and is sought out by travelers (still in Terminal One) who seek to see or talk to him. He continues to read.

In other words, he refuses to sign because the documents aren’t in accordance with his wishes. Amazing.

And so, Nasseri remains in Terminal One, where perhaps he can track down magazines that dissect all that’s good and bad about Spielberg’s new movie, but he’ll never get a chance to watch. Let alone get some fresh air for prolonged periods of time.

Also of interest is Joan Menefee’s creative non-fiction account of an encounter with Nasseri that appeared in Exquisite Corpse, the online journal edited by Andrei Codrescu (whose new novel WAKEFIELD is just out.)