The Imposter

In 1994, a thirteen-year-old boy named Nicholas Barclay vanished from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Roughly three years later, a frightened, confused teenager turned up in Spain, claiming to be Nicholas and describing kidnapping and abuse at the hands of captors. His family welcomed him back, even though his eye and hair color, his accent and his failure to recognize anyone close to him marked a young man who seemed nothing like the boy who had disappeared.

Bart Layton wrote and directed this British and American documentary, his first feature, followed later by American Animals and Crime 101. It mixes interviews with the real people involved, among them Frédéric Bourdin, Nicholas's sister Carey Gibson, his mother Beverly Dollarhide, his brother-in-law Bryan Gibson, FBI agent Nancy Fisher and private investigator Charlie Parker, with re-enactments of events, so that the audience shares the confusion of everyone trying to establish who this young man actually was.

On IMDb the film holds a 7.4 rating from about 53,000 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.3 from a much smaller base of around 800 voters. A critics' rating of 8 out of 10 from 119 reviews places it above both audience scores. The film runs 99 minutes.