By Shirley Farmer 
The story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri inspired Steven Spielberg’s film Airport Lounge. The 76-year-old Iranian man returned to Paris airport a few weeks ago.
Iranian Mehran Karimi Nasseri, who lived for 18 years at Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, died. Trapped in a diplomatic stalemate, in 1988 Nasseri made a small swathe of the airport his home. His story inspired the movie “Airport Terminal” (2004), starring Tom Hanks.
Born in 1945 in Khuzestan Province, Iran, Nasiri first traveled to Europe in search of his mother. He lived in Belgium for a few years, after being expelled from countries such as the UK, the Netherlands and Germany for not having immigration documents. He went to France, where he made his home in Terminal 2 of the airport. Cuddled on a bench, surrounded by carts with everything he had accumulated, he spent his days writing in diaries and reading books and newspapers. He became a familiar figure to airport employees.
His story attracted the attention of the media and Steven Spielberg, who directed “Airport Terminal” with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
He ended up getting permission to live in France, as a refugee, in 1999, but stayed at the airport. After the premiere of the film, the Iranian became famous. At one point, Nasseri, who called himself “Sir Alfred”, gave six interviews a day. In 2006 he was taken to the hospital for treatment of an illness. He later lived in a hostel, using money he received from the film, according to the French newspaper Release🇧🇷
After spending a lot of that money, Nasiri returned to the airport a few weeks ago, where he lived until his death, an airport official said. BBC🇧🇷 He died on Saturday of a heart attack at the age of 76 in Terminal 25 of Charles de Gaulle Airport. It was found with several thousand euros.
