Krakozhia

Krakozhia (Кракожия) is a fictional country created for the movie The Terminal starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones.

History

In the movie, Krakozhia (also misspelled "Cracozhia" or "Cacosia") is the tiniest republic in Eastern Europe and may have been a former Soviet republic. The natives speak the Krakozhian language. From January 16 2004 to November 2004 the country was in civil war. When the war began, the President of the country was held hostage. As such, a new regime is installed, one which the United States did not recognize.

This causes problems for Krakozhian Viktor Navorski, who is en route to New York City at the time. Landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport, he found his passport and visa are now useless, and he could neither enter the US nor return to Krakozhia because Krakozhia had sealed its borders. As such, Viktor has to stay in the airport terminal for nine months, after which peace is declared in Krakozhia and he is able to return home.

Little else is known about Krakozhia, except that there was a lot of fighting which made the international news. We hear of the "northern area" being taken by rebels. Krakozhia has a national anthem almost exactly like that of Albania save for the lyrics, which in the film are pure gibberish. Navorski's driver's license is Belarusian. One can see the words Вадзіцельскае пасведчаньне (trn:Vadzicel'skae pasvedchan'ne), which means driver's license in Belarusian and the name of Belarusian city Homel.

The language which Hanks' character speaks in the film, although referred to as "Krakozhian", is in fact heavily-accented Bulgarian.