The Terminal

• Tom Hanks: Viktor Navorski
• Catherine Zeta -Jones: Amelia Warren
• Stanley Tucci: Frank Dixon
• Diego Luna: Enrique Cruz
• Pallana Kumar Gupta Rajan
• Zoë Saldaña: Officer Dolores Torres
• Chi McBride: Mulroy
• Benny Golson: itself

Terminal is a feature film directed by Steven Spielberg from 2004 with Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta -Jones in the lead roles.

The film was shown on 1 September 2004 at the Venice Film Festival as the opening film.

Action

Viktor Navorski, a visitor from the fictional Eastern European country Krakosien, lands at JFK airport in New York when his home country goes into civil war turmoil and is not diplomatically recognized by the United States. Since his passport so that is invalid, preventing the bureaucracy - embodied by the senior official Frank Dixon - an entry into the country as well as a return flight.

Much to the annoyance of Dixon and kept under continuous observation of the surveillance cameras, the Stranded directed in the airport terminal to a domesticated life. Viktor fights every day against the wiles of the Airport Authority, in order to reach his goal. At first he accumulated baggage car in order to buy from the small change food. When Dixon realizes this, he sets a airport manager, who Viktor decreases the collected luggage cart.

Viktor tries to get a job, which he, however, fails because of the missing papers in one of the shops at the airport. However, when he discovered a building site at the airport, he started building a wall finish. This is seen in the morning by the workers and Viktor is set as a construction worker. During the more than nine -month waiting period, Navorski in love with the flight attendant Amelia. He organized a dinner on the terrace of the terminal and builds a colorful fountain for them. He receives support from a crowd of mostly foreign laborers. An Indian, a Latino and an African American are examples of the immigrant nations in the United States.

After the end of the civil war in Krakosien Viktor flies back to his home, but not without first to deliver on the promise to his late father: Collect the missing signature of the renowned jazz tenor saxophonist Benny Golson. Victor's father had once discovered in a Hungarian newspaper photo A Great Day in Harlem and then tried to grab the autographs of all 57 musicians shown.

Background

• The film is loosely based on the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri Iranian who lived from 26 August 1988 to August 2006 under the name Sir, Alfred ( he himself used the comma in its name ) at the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Nasseri's fate was the filmed in 1993 in the French comedy from heaven fallen to 2001 in the British pseudo - documentary Here to Where.

• Spielberg moves the story in the U.S., where after the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001, the distrust of immigrants has increased considerably. In this climate of foreclosure he goes with The terminal at a distance over that of President George W. Bush initiated Department of Homeland Security and takes a stand for an open society. However, Arabs do not play a major role in the film.

• End of 2009, the case of the Chinese human rights activist Feng Zhenghu became internationally known, has been denied by Chinese authorities repeatedly re-entry. Then he stayed for several months in the security area of ​​the airport Tokyo Narita. The case was often compared in the press with Navorski in the film.

Trivia

• Zoë Saldaña played in the movie a Trekkie. Five years after the film's release, she starred in Star Trek XI ( and 2013 in Star Trek Into Darkness ) has a major role, that of Lieutenant Uhura.

Criticism

" An entertaining, supported by virtually weightless playful mood and of dramatic acrobatics fable that tries to tackle Steven Spielberg's constant themes of homelessness and of being lost in a strange, hostile world on the bright side, which gets stuck ultimately in to indecisive mixture of comedy and pathos. "

Awards

• Composer John Williams was awarded the 2005 BMI film music award.