How well do you know your loved ones? If you were separated for several years, would you recognize them instantly? Most of us think we would, that no changes in appearance or passing years would stop us from knowing our family. But then there is the case of the Barclay family, who welcomed their missing son Nicholas back into their lives only to find out he was an imposter. This audacious fraud is the subject of The Imposter, which is the craziest documentary streaming on Netflix.

Let’s start with the facts. In 1994, an American teenager named Nicholas Barclay disappeared after playing basketball with his friends in San Antonio. He was presumed murdered, but his body was never found. Authorities gave up. His family grieved. Then, less than three years later, the Barclay family got a phone call that their son had turned up, lost and scared, in the middle of Spain. The family welcomed him back without hesitation, but other people noticed that something was not quite right. Not right at all. The Nicholas Barclay of 1994 was a blue-eyed and blonde-haired kid who lived his entire life in Texas. The Nicholas who returns in 1997 has brown eyes, obviously dyed hair, and a French accent. How can the family not recognize the obvious imposter?

This is the central investigation of the documentary. Did the grief-stricken Barclay family simply wish so hard for their son back that they would believe anyone? Or did they, deep down, know that Bourdin wasn’t really their son and decided not to care? Or—as Bourdin himself alleges as his living lie starts to unravel—was something more sinister at work? Through a series of moving interviews with the Barclay family, we hear their different stories and emotions. Director Bart Layton presents them without judgement, and you feel for each of them, even if you still don’t understand how they could be fooled.

Interspersed with the emotional accounts of the Barclay family are spirited interviews with the imposter himself, Frédéric Bourdin. Bourdin details how he tricked the Spanish and American authorities, fabricating a story of child sex criminals who changed his eye color and dragged him around the world. Bourdin is clearly impressed with his own cleverness, and perhaps he should be. Few people have pulled off this kind of identity fraud. Bourdin—23 at the time—narrates his half of the story like a crime thriller, and the twists and turns easily could be the plot of Hollywood thriller. Bourdin is less clear when explaining his motivations for stealing the identity of a complete stranger and going to live halfway around the world. As a human, you might judge him a monster or at least a callous criminal, but as a character in the documentary he’s fascinating. (After watching the documentary, I highly recommend The New Yorker profile of Bourdin by David Grann.)

All of that is just the beginning of the story. The documentary is so gripping, and the twists so surprising that it wouldn’t be fair to say anything else. Just watch it.

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