The Longest Now

Mehran Nasseri, the man famous for being unable to leave Charles de Gaulle airport, and later refusing to leave once the opportunity arose, has produced and published his own haunting memoirs.   And he has been subjected to many reconstructions of his life, but few of them balanced, or providing current context.

Questions that remain unanswered : is he mentally ill or not?  If so, how?  Who in particular does he correspond with?  Now that he is living outside the airport: does he try to return?  Does he have any money from the productions in which he has been involved — the Dreamworks/Tom Hanks fim “The Terminal“, the sales of his memoirs?  Does his lawyer, who both fought for his rights in court before his fame grew and helped sell his life story to DreamWorks, sit pretty on resources he himself will never enjoy?  And if so, is it because he is unable or unwilling to enjoy them?  Is the French government paying to put him up in his current halfway house?

Rather than putting details below the fold, I’ve put up a short essay about Nasseri.  If you have any answers to these questions, or more questions, please leave them there.