The Terminal

The Terminal is an American romantic comedy drama film directed by Steven Spielberg released in 2004 and is partially inspired by the seventeen years stay of Mehran Karimi Nasseri in the Charles de Gaille International Airport, Terminal 1, Paris, France from 26 August 1988 to July 2006 when his refugee papers were stolen.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri

The film starts with an Eastern European man by the name of Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) arrives at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and while he was air en route to America, a revolution was started in his home nation of Krakozhia (fictional country). With his passport, visas and currency issued by Krakozhia are no longer valid internationally and suddenly, he is a citizen of nowhere. Hence, Viktor is denied entrance to the U.S and he is also unable to return home but to lives in the terminal carrying his luggage until Krakozhia's situation is resolved.

As the days stretch on into months, Viktor finds the compressed universe of the terminal to be a richly complex world of absurdity, generosity, culture, ambition, amusement, status, serendipity and even romance with a beautiful flight attendant named Amelia Warren (Catherine Zeta-Jones).

Life is a challenge and it's natural that we feel sad, frightened and pained when anything adverse happens to us. In the film, we see how Viktor reviews the bright side of every angle of his problems in time of adversity when he doesn't speak English very well, with no valid citizenship, no cash and no one to help him around in the terminal. And while Viktor is rising to his life challenges, how he begins to befriends and helps some of the people around him who work in the airport.

The best things in life are worth waiting for, fighting for,

believing in and just never letting go of.

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