Tasty tidbit in "The Terminal"
Title: The Terminal
Release Date: 18 June 2004
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director: Steven Spielberg
Writing Credits: Andrew Niccol, Sacha Gervasi, Sacha Gervasi, Jeff Nathanson
Production Companies: Dreamworks Pictures, Amblin Entertainment, Parkes+MacDonald Image Nation (as Parkes/MacDonald Productions)
“The Terminal” centers around an Eastern European man played by Tom Hanks who gets stranded in JFK airport after his visa is no longer available because of the unstable nature of his home country.
While quite a large number of movies mention Romania in passing, most of the time, these short tidbits of information are more correct as opposed to a longer or larger representation. Makes sense as people, such as myself, can sometimes only remember specific things about certain events or places. This does not seem to be true for this movie however, as what is presented as truth is more of a legend.
The movie “The Terminal” is one inspired by the story of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, an Iranian refugee who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Charles de Gaulle Airport from 26 August 1988 until July 2006 (18 years). This mind-boggling situation stemmed from him being expelled from Iran in 1977 because of protests and later being awarded refugee status by the United Nations Commissioner for Refugees in Belgium, something that allegedly permitted residence in other European countries. The claim was disputed creating an unprecedented predicament.
Now, the elusive information this movie offers as truth is; drum-roll!!! The origin of the croissant! Apparently it is a Romanian creation stemming from the Romanian pasty also known as “chiflă.”
“Did you know the croissant is invented in Romania? […] It’s 1742, and the Turks invade Bucharest, making a surprise attack under the cover of night. But the town bakers…”
The story gets interrupted by a pager and is never finished. Disappointing. I was quite curios to hear the story, but as the movie is considered a comedy, I suppose they could not bore the general public with too much history. The character who started the story, Amelia, played by Catherine Zeta Jones, even says:
“Nobody really cares where the croissant was invented. I’ll bet not even the Romanians themselves don’t give a shit.”
Honestly though, I care. Is it really true? Most of the superficial information one can find on the internet is that; indeed, the croissant is not a French invention, not much about it being Romanian outside of it being a legend. Can legends even be considered history? Considering what I said earlier about random information, I come to wonder, did the writers themselves know the story that was interrupted? From the way the story is told; as truth; I have my doubts.
The unfinished legend does not seem to have happened in 1742 — contrary to what the movie might have us believe — and could even go as far back as the seventeenth century. The most prevalent story I have found is that the croissant came to be in 1683 (January 30th even), when the Turkish Empire laid siege on Vienna, Austria. The idea is that, the bakers heard the Turks, sounded the alarm, the city was saved and they baked a descending half-moon to celebrate (invoking similarity with the Turkish flag with the Star and crescent). The legend is a bit vague, some versions say the city in question was Vienna, others Budapest, and others Bucharest. Who really knows?
Romanians don’t battle for the title of “croissant originators” and from what it seems, this “battle” is mostly between Austrians, Hungarians and the French. So maybe, Amelia was right, Romanians don’t care about the origin of the croissant.
