Imposter, The

UK 2012, 95 minutes
Dir. Bart Layton
Rating: [M] Offensive Language.
Genres: Documentary

“This true story plays like a gripping psychological thriller, offering hard speculation and harder truths. You won't be able to get it out of your head.”~Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Aroview: An extraordinary account of a French-Algerian con artist named Frédéric Bourdin and his impersonation of an American teenager who returns to his family three years after his apparent abduction.

Taking full advantage of its stranger-than-fiction premise, this is structured and styled for maximum nail-biting effect ala MAN ON WIRE, threaded by an unsettlingly sincere first-person interview with Bourdin himself. Littered with psychoanalytical gold, this ultimately reveals a heart-breaking story of a family's loss and our collective propensity to believe a palatable lie over painful truth.

NZ International Film Festival 2012