Kriti Mehrotra
With Netflix’s ‘iHostage’ chronicling the tale of a heavily armed man taking control of an Apple store in the heart of the city before making imprudent demands, we get a thriller unlike any other. After all, it shines a light upon not just the incident itself but also how the people indirectly involved in it – hostages and police officers alike – help bring it to a close before things go too far. There is one hostage at the front and center of this entire saga, though, without whose efforts the climax would have been much, much different – he is a man named Ilian Petrov in the film.
Ilian Petrov is Inspired by a Real Bulgarian Native Who Showed Extraordinary Courage
It should come as no surprise to anyone that since ‘iHostage’ is based on real-life events of February 22, 2022 — when Abdel Rahman Akkad stormed an Apple store in Amsterdam — Ilian Petrov is also inspired by a real individual. Unfortunately, not much is actually known about the man whom Abdel held at gunpoint for over 5 hours on the fateful day, except his age and nationality. While initial reports identified him as an Englishman who was in town for some work, it later came to light that he was, in fact, a 44-year-old native of Bulgaria.
According to the Bobby Boermans directorial, the Bulgarian native had stepped into the store to buy AirPods around 5:30 pm, only to end up staring down the barrel of a weapon for over 5 hours. He had no idea the store would be stormed mere minutes later by a man in a camouflage suit, brandishing an automatic weapon and a pistol while trying to take control of everything around him. In the ensuing chaos, he ended up being the only one left behind – 4 people were hiding in a closet, whereas around 65 others were trapped upstairs, but he was the only one in Abdel’s sight.
The Bulgarian man thus became the key hostage, especially as neither of them knew there were others in their vicinity. Yet, it’s unclear whether the way his life is portrayed in the production is authentic. We mean this in terms of him possibly having a heart condition for which he took medicine, him being a married man whose wife was hoping they could get a new place soon, and him having arrived in Amsterdam just that morning for work as if it were a frequent trip. That’s because the real hostage has since chosen to remain well away from the limelight, making it likely that some creative liberties were taken while developing Ilian so as to make him more three-dimensional, especially to highlight the humanity of everyone involved.
The Bulgarian Hostage Took His Fate into His Own Hands
It was around 10:30 pm when Abdel demanded a few bottles of water from officials, reportedly at the behest of the 44-year-old Bulgarian, and the duo soon went to pick it up together. As per records, the former was still holding the latter at gunpoint when he asked him to retrieve the bottles from the ground outside of the store, just for him to see an opportunity to escape. The hostage quickly ran across the street, just for an official from a specialized police unit on standby at the scene to press hard on their car’s accelerator and hit the captor as he ran behind. Instinctively, Abdel had followed his hostage without firing his weapon or setting off explosives.
Once the threat had settled, the Bulgarian was reportedly looked at by medical professionals before being questioned by the police, all the while others investigated the matter further. The next morning, he was heavily praised for his sheer bravery by officials and the public alike, especially as he didn’t crumble despite having been held hostage by Abdel for over 5 hours. The police chief in Amsterdam at the time, Frank Paauw, even went as far as to assert that he played “a kind of heroic role… He acted in a split second (to get away). Had he not done that, it could have been a very nasty and long night.”
Since then, though, from what we can tell, the Bulgarian man has preferred to keep away from the spotlight as much as possible to protect not only his privacy but also that of his loved ones. In the time that has passed, he has also released just a single statement regarding this entire ordeal, in February 2022, within which he requested people to remove all his images from social media while dealing with what transpired in private while surrounded by his family. He received the Hero’s Pin for Bravery from the city of Amsterdam on March 31, 2022, but since then, he has not made any public appearances.
Read More: Is Ammar Ajar Based on a Real Person? What Happened to Abdel Rahman Akkad?
