Scholars Mind

Trapped Between Borders

In the 2004 film The Terminal, a traveler lands at an American airport only to discover that his country’s government has collapsed. With his passport no longer valid, he can’t enter the United States, but he also can’t go home again—so he ends up living at the airport indefinitely. Watch highlights from the film with your team, then consider the real case of Mehran Karimi Nasser that inspired it. Why do you think Steven Spielberg made the changes to the story that he did? And what should governments do in situations like these? You may also want to look into some more recent examples of people stuck in airports, including that of Edward Snowden.

Key concepts

Statelessness
Belonging to no country that will claim you, and losing the rights a nationality carries; it can strike mid-journey when a passport or refugee status is revoked, as it did for Snowden for political reasons.

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Every work — at a glance

  • The Terminal — Steven Spielberg (film)

    Spielberg's 2004 film: Tom Hanks lands at JFK just as a coup topples his home country, his passport instantly worthless — so he lives in the airport, a warm comedy over a bleak predicament.

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What to know

  1. 01
    The premise is less far-fetched than it sounds — Nasseri really lived in an airport for eighteen years and others have for months — so the film dramatizes a genuine gap in how nations handle people who lose their legal right to be anywhere.

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Across subjects

The limbo has a real history: after World War I left millions stateless, the explorer Fridtjof Nansen got the League of Nations to issue the 'Nansen passport'

Theme connection

"Are We There Yet?"

Unable to go home or arrive anywhere else, a person makes a cruel home of the airport — Nasseri's eighteen years suspended between departure and arrival. Does sweetening a tragic true story honor it or betray it? And what does a government owe someone trapped between borders — asylum, or the strict rules that stranded them?

Practice — a sample

SOCWhy does losing a valid passport mid-journey leave someone stuck in an airport's zone?

  • A Flights cost too much
  • B No country will admit them
  • C Airports are quite comfortable
  • D They enjoy the wait
  • E The film requires it

Sign in to answer and see why each option is right or wrong.

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