The Imposter

In the mid-’90s, a teenager named Nicolas Barclay disappeared after storming angrily out of his San Antonio home. Three years later, his family got a call from a Spanish juvenile center, where a man claiming to be Nicolas has been found. What follows in Bart Layton’s documentary, The Imposter, is one wild story, about a wily European who convinced the Barclays that he was their long-lost son, now speaking with a French accent for reasons he explained to them in a convoluted story about torture and reprogramming. Layton takes a just-the-facts approach to the narrative, letting the participants speak directly into the camera about what happened, supported by Errol Morris-style re-enactments.  

Updated 02/28/2012