Featured Image Credit: Film4
Topics: Film and TV, Documentaries, Entertainment, US News, True crime
Tom Wood
Topics: Film and TV, Documentaries, Entertainment, US News, True crime
A new ‘wild’ documentary has been added to Netflix, telling the story of a young boy who went missing, then turned up again, but everything was not quite as it seemed.
Here’s the trailer so you can get a measure of it for yourself:
Back in 1994, a boy called Nicholas Barclay disappeared in Texas after he’d been playing basketball with a few friends.
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Three years passed, and his distraught family received word that he had been found at last.
However, things didn’t quite turn out to be that simple.
This bizarre case is the subject matter for documentary The Imposter.
The BAFTA-winning film came out a decade ago, but it’s new to Netflix.
Sitting in the True Crime section, it’s already delighting fans of the genre who can’t quite believe the story that it tells.
So here we go.
Barclay, 13, disappeared after a game of basketball in San Antonio back in 1994, with the police assuming that he had been murdered or kidnapped.
After much time passed and no body was ever found, the search eventually had to be called off.
His family were understandably devastated, but then in 1997 they received a call to tell them that their son had been discovered alone and – confusingly – halfway around the world in Spain.
Obviously, they were ready to welcome him back, but when he eventually returned they found that some things were a bit different.
Their son was a blonde-haired and blue-eyed child from Texas, but this kid was brown-eyed, had dyed hair, and spoke with a French accent.
Still, the confused family were all too happy to welcome back the boy they thought was their son, which potentially led them to discard all of the significant problems with the story.
In the end, it turned out that the whole thing was a ruse set up by 23-year-old con-artist Frédéric Bourdin, who posed as Nicholas.
That ain’t everything, though.
You’ll have to watch it to find out the whole saga.
In the documentary, the Barclay family tell their side of things, whilst Bourdin also gives his account of events.
Netflix’s synopsis reads: “Unforgettable, chilling, and emotional, The Imposter tells the gripping true story of a Texan boy who went missing in 1994 and was miraculously found three and a half years later thousands of miles away in southern Spain.
“Despite glaring inconsistencies in his physical appearance, the boy's family brought their long-lost 'son' home to restart his life in Texas.
"Questions soon arise: how could the Barclay's blonde, blue-eyed son have returned with darker skin and eyes?
“How could his personality and even accent have changed so dramatically? Truth soon proves stranger than fiction as the real story emerges.”
Fans are hooked already, with some describing it as ‘wild’ and crazy’ whereas another urged: “If you’ve never seen true crime doc The Imposter, bump it to the front of your Netflix queue immediately.”
The Imposter is available on Netflix now.