Tom Hanks once contemplated doing a movie about the real life case of an immigrant who got indefinitely detained at an airport. For bureaucratic reasons he was unable either to move on or go back from whence he came. At the time the film was being planned the poor fellow had been stuck at the airport for almost 2 years, sleeping on a cot in on of the back rooms.
It's a nice idea but I think that it's really more made for TV, like those other cross road motif shows: MASH & American Gothic. For on thing movies demand resolution, and the point of this is that there was no resolution - it was indefinitely temporary! The movie would need a loophole (like the cavalry riding to the rescue) to clue it up in under 90 minutes!
Besides the dialogue for TV would work so much better:
Staffer: Hey Ali it's time to let go and move into the light.
Ali: You mean my paper work finally came through?
Staffer: Nah, just messing with you.
Bystander: How long have you been here?
Ali: Going on 2 years.
Bystander: Can't you appeal to your government?
Ali: The country I come from no longer exists. It was over thrown in a military coup and the new government is unrecognized by the UN.
Bystander: Well isn't there some higher authority you can appeal to?
Ali: Well of course I pray.
Staffer: To bad God doesn't have an embassy nearby.
Of course Ali would only be a supporting character. Like Klinger on MASH. TV has no stars and is a team sport. Where as in the film Ali might by the unlikely hero of an awkward narrative, in the TV version it's the situation, & the relationships, that define the drama - like Seinfeld's "nothing" (Zen & the art of situation comedy). It's underlying motif is the crossroads - unable to go forward or to move back - "Livin' on the air in Cincinnati - Cincinnati WKRP!"
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