The Imposter

Good, respectfully made documentaries are very difficult to rate, and even more difficult to review! This is what I experience once again after watching Bart Leyton's uniquely jaw-dropping "The Imposter". It would have been so much easier if this were a fictional story… Then we would all be able to write that it's a bunch of implausible and far-fetched nonsense that sprung from the mind of an overly imaginative scriptwriter! But this is a true story and – believe me – incredibly hard to fathom! Leyton reconstructs, chronologically and patiently, the story of an unscrupulous French/Algerian fraud who incomprehensibly manages to impersonate a vanished 16-year-old Texan; misleading the boy's devastated family members as well as the authorities and the media. When apprehended in Spain, Frédéric Bourdin sees the opportunity to assume the identity of Nicholas Barclay, who disappeared without a trace in his hometown of San Antonio 3 years and 4 months ago. There's no way back when Nicholas' sister comes to bring him back to Texas, but even though he looks, sounds and acts completely different than Nicholas ever did, the family embraces Bourdin without questioning his grotesque made up testimonies. Only gradually, some people become skeptical and begin to dig a deeper in Bourdin's persona, like a social worker and a private detective. The most praiseworthy aspect about "The Imposter", and I believe this is entirely Bart Leyton's very own accomplishment, is that this documentary isn't manipulative or judgmental at all. The film doesn't condemn the family members for their blindness, naivety or how easily they were brainwashed. Quite important, because this made me – personally - feel less like a voyeur in observing all the pain these people had to endure. Bourdin himself is also even granted to elaborate on his miserable childhood and his urge to compensate through becoming a phony. Leyton's narrative style is captivating and honest, and you hardly even notice the whole thing gradually turning from documentary into a tense thriller/film-noir. "The Imposter" is something you just have to discover yourself, I can only repeat that it's an incredible story that you don't even fully when you are gazing at it.

There are far too few documentaries on general release so it's a rare pleasure to sit in a dark screening room with six other people to watch another example of bizarre real life unfold across the screen. The Imposter is one of those documentaries where you sit there with the sense of incredulity growing as every twist in the plot reveals itself. It's not as jaw-droppingly absurd as the excellent Tabloid and it isn't remotely funny, but it is a fascinating and compelling experience. I'll qualify that; the story of The Imposter is fascinating while the manner in which it is presented to us upon the screen is absolutely compelling and worthy of the plaudits it has so far received, including a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival and a gong in the same category at the Miami Film Festival. In San Antonio, Texas on 13 June 1994, thirteen-year-old Nicholas Barclay disappeared. Three and a half years later, when his family's only hope was to find his remains and gain closure, they received word that Nicholas was alive and had been found in Spain. His elder sister, Carey, flew out to Spain to bring Nicholas home whereupon he unfolded a tale of kidnapping and abuse. However, blonde, blue-eyed American Nicolas had somehow become darker skinned, dark haired and French and now looked out onto the world through brown eyes. Yet the family still accepted him as their own! Told partly through interviews with the players including, incredibly, the imposter himself and dramatized interpretations of events, The Imposter gently reveals the events as private investigator Charlie Parker suspects Frédérick Bourdin's true identity and uncovers his history. It bears some resemblance to Le Retour de Martin Guerre (or Sommersby if you preferred the American adaptation) but there is no sign of altruism or a purity of intent from Bourdin. Just as you think you've understood the situation, another nugget of information widens the eyes even further until 'How could the family not know?' turns to 'Why did they decide not to know?' And still more questions arrive. It's an incredible story where doubt is cast over the sanity and honesty of those at the heart of it. At one point, Nicholas' sister (the real one, not the version played by an actress) says with all sincerity, "Spain? That's, like, across the country!" It is plainly obvious we're not dealing with the brightest sparks. But being educationally challenged does not mean dishonesty is not a factor. Director Bart Layton weaves the tale beautifully, never giving away too much in one go and his use of reconstruction blends perfectly with the genuine interviews. The use of real person and actor for each 'character' so often jars in TV documentaries leaving the viewer confused as to who s/he is watching on the screen. Here, Layton has cast perfectly and the dual appearances compliment each other, blending so it is neither noticeable nor important which version we are watching. Star status is usually reserved for performers in feature films, not factual documentaries, but Bourdin is so relaxed, so matter of fact in the telling of his own version of events that he draws the viewer in and leaves us wanting to climb inside his head an know how his brain turns and how many teeth are missing from each cog. The Imposter, though unlikely to enthuse as wide an audience as last year's Project Nim or Senna, is a bizarre, chilling, surprising and thoroughly enthralling 99-minute eye-opening experience.

Stranger than fiction true-life documentary of the opportunistic and heartless identity-theft by a mature 23 year old French nationality homeless man who, after being picked up on the street in Limares, Spain assumed the identity of a young boy who had disappeared three years ago aged 13 from his home in Texas.

The perpetrator, one Frederic Bourdin, randomly picked his new identity from a file of international missing persons whilst in police custody, although you would think he could have done a better job of it as he was at the time six years older than the boy Nicholas Barclay he chose to impersonate, had a different hair colour and spoke with a pronounced accent, never mind being separated by the Atlantic Ocean, but preying on a family elated at the prospect of the miraculous reappearance of their long lost son, he ran the whole nine yards in the role before finally a doctor's testimony put a stop to the charade and eventually saw Bourdin go to jail, leaving behind a family now heartbroken a second time and a host of incredulous officials duped by his brazen callowness.

Like a dark version of the Emperor's New Clothes, this is a story of a desperate family seeing what wasn't there and believing the impossible through the blinding distortion of their individual and collective grief. It all really starts with the boy's sister who flies to Spain and immediately falls for her long-lost brother's incredible return from the dead, swallowing whole his explanations for his changes of appearance, voice and character. Bourdin, now spying a life of ease in America as the pampered born-again son, had decided to follow through with the ruse, dying his hair blond, adding a few tattoos and concocting a fantastical story of being kidnapped and transported abroad to a life as a sex-slave with the so-called gang even managing to conveniently change his eye-colour in the process.

There's no question of the film-maker here attempting some is-he-or-isn't-he mystery, as the film's title makes clear, confirmed by Bourdin's first smirking, unrepentant appearance. The key events in the fraud are recreated dramatically and interspersed with interviews of all the major players in this unbelievable story set to a deliberately light, capering musical soundtrack which itself from the first strongly hints at the elusiveness and illusion at the heart of this incredible story.

In the end Bourdin got jailed for six years, the missing boy's hapless family saw their hopes of his resurrection brutally dashed and of course, his abduction and likely murder returned to the files of the unexplained and unsolved.

I came away from the film with a sense of how the power of loss, especially that of a child, can so blind a family which had given up hope and a sense of rage at the heartless selfishness of a still apparently unapologetic sick individual who even today diverts blame back to the trusting family who took him in.

Pity help the wife and three children the film tells us in an epilogue he lives with today.

I saw this film at the 2012 Edinburgh Film Festival. The film focuses on the story of Nicholas Barclay who disappeared from his Texas home in 1994. Three years later he's found in France and then re-united with his parents. But it's obvious he cannot be there son. He's an impostor; a 23 year old con-artist. The film explores the unravelling of this story through interviews and very well realised reconstructions of the events. Documentary recreations don't always work and can detract from the interviews but here they work very well.It makes for a strange and compelling film. A deliberation on the nature of truth and lies that had me completely gripped.

'The Imposter (2012)' is one of those movies that you really need to see to believe. As such, I'll try my very best to avoid spoiling even its most basic story beats. Still, I'd advise not reading further if you intend on watching the piece, which I highly recommend you do, because it feels as though the less you know, the more potent the experience will be. That said, the documentary tells an almost unbelievable tale that kicks off with a missing child and only gets stranger and sadder from there. It's very forthcoming with its first major twist, opting to reveal the nature of its eponymous imposter surprisingly early. Rather than use it for a shock later down the line, it uses it to drown the entire affair in dramatic irony. This choice transforms the piece from focusing on what its central con is, to how that con was even successful in the first place. It allows the flick to ruminate on some interesting themes of deception, perception and ignorance. It's never as straightforward as you think and it still provides plenty of powerful twists and turns, despite the fact that what could have been its most major one is - as I mentioned - laid bare almost as soon as the thing starts. The film plays out a bit like the con it retells, allowing some of its subjects to manipulate the audience just as they manipulated people in real life. For the most part, it remains neutral and allows its viewers to make up their own minds. Because of the ever-shifting nature of the story, that isn't as simple as it would first seem. You're likely to be turning the plot over in your mind long after the inevitability unsatisfying conclusion has been and gone. The piece does end on a pretty damning statement from its eponymous trickster, which almost solidifies its (or, rather, its makers') true feelings towards its subject matter and yet doesn't feel like a betrayal of the flick's otherwise distant approach. The film really is captivating. It's actually, if you'll pardon the cliché, stranger than fiction; if it were a traditional film, you'd accuse its plot of being too unbelievable. It's an entertaining and well-executed documentary that makes excellent use of surprisingly formalistic recreations and effectively candid 'talking head' segments. At the end of the day, it portrays a really sad situation and it doesn't even pretend to provide an answer to the most burning question it raises. It's an accomplished piece of work. 7/10.