SAO PAULO – A Polish man spent more than two weeks marooned at a Brazilian airport in a bizarre echo of Steven Spielberg's 2004 movie "The Terminal," Brazilian media reported Wednesday.
Robert Wladyslaw Parzelski traveled from London to Sao Paulo International Airport on June 17 without a return flight or a penny to his name, according to the Jornal Floripa.
The 44-year-old electrician managed to slip through customs but decided to stay put, bedding down on a concrete bench while he supposedly waited for a friend who never arrived.
Unable to speak a word of Portuguese, Parzelski simply repeated in pidgin English, "I'm Poland" when airport janitors inquired about his wellbeing.
His feeble attempts to communicate were seemingly unsuccessful, as staff soon dubbed him "the German." Nonetheless, they gathered food, cigarettes and even several bottles of vodka for the new arrival, according to the Folha de S.Paulo.
Parzelski's story mirrored the predicament of Spielberg's protagonist Viktor Navorski, a native of the fictitious country of Krakozhia who was denied entry to the United States after landing at JFK but could not return to his homeland due to a revolution.
But whereas Navorski, played by Tom Hanks, enjoyed plentiful food, fun and even a romance with a beautiful flight attendant, Parzelski found himself cold, hungry and unable to change clothes or wash.
When news of his plight hit the media, a 70-year-old Polish doctor living in Sao Paulo was called in to question Parzelski, who explained, somewhat cryptically, that he was sent to Brazil to collect two telephone handsets.
After a short trip to the hospital, Parzelski, by now sporting a long beard, was ordered to leave Brazil Tuesday, bringing his 18-day stay to an end, Folha de S.Paulo said.
The newspaper said he sipped a glass of ale before fondly bidding farewell to staff and boarding a plane to Switzerland -- where he faces yet more time in the dreaded departures lounge before taking a flight back to Britain.
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