1. 21/03/2014 13:47THE IMPOSTER, a Riveting Psychological Journey, from Director Bart Layton - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com
Page 1 of 4http://voices.yahoo.com/the-imposter-riveting-psychological-journey-from-11655542.html
THE IMPOSTER, a Riveting Psychological
Journey, from Director Bart Layton
Janet Walker, Yahoo Contributor Network
Aug 9, 2012
THE IMPOSTER, a riveting psychological journey, delves into the 1994 disappearance of Texas
teenager Nicholas Barclay and the astronomical odds of his return.
Directed by Bart Layton and produced by Dimitri Doganis, THE IMPOSTER, bring to the screen a
mesmerizing true account of a child gone missing and the astonishing events that followed.
On a cold rainy night a child huddles in a phone booth, frightened, no ID, no memory. He is taken to a
children's facility where an investigation ensues. The story he explains is filled with horrific details of
torture, sex trafficking enslavement, graphic brutality, vivid and shocking cruelty and unspeakable
crimes that stun every individual who hears his harrowing tale.
THE IMPOSTER introduces the audience to a masterful con artist in Frederic Bordain, who is given
ample screen time and opportunity to describe, in detail, his plan, motive, maneuvering, and his rock
solid belief in his own ability to persuade, impersonate and con both the vulnerable and those trained
to recognize con artists.
By the film's end the audience is left to determine who conned whom? Was it Frederic Bordain, who
proudly proclaims, "I washed their brain" as he described his step by step process of becoming
Nicholas Barclay. Or was it the family who, to this day, may be hiding a darker more sinister secret?
THE IMPOSTER takes the audience into uncharted territory as this crime of impersonating an
abducted child was the first ever and to this day has not been duplicated with success.
Having the opportunity to speak with THE IMPOSTER's Director Bart Layton and Producer Dimitri
Dognais, I noticed they both seemed as genuinely stunned and shocked as they hope the viewer
becomes after watching the film. The following is an excerpt of my interview:
With Director Bart Layton
Janet Walker: Clearly this is a compelling story, in the sea of compelling stories, why did you choose
this one?
Bart Layton (Director): In the sea of compelling stories there are only a few stories out there which are
unusual as this one. Of course, there are a lot of true stories but I think there is something about this
one which, I think, if someone would have told you it was the plot to a book or play you probably
would have thought it was far-fetched but because it is true, we were immediately compelled to try
and understand more about it.
JW: How did you come across the material?
BL: We originally came across the story written about him Frederic Bourdin in a Spanish magazine he
was already, before this episode happened, known as a chameleon. He was known and rather
infamous for having lived this life pretending to be a damaged child with, what seems to be the sole
purposes of getting access to orphanages, children centers, shelters all this kind of stuff, and I was
fascinated by that enough to want to go and do more research and in the course of doing additional
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2. 21/03/2014 13:47THE IMPOSTER, a Riveting Psychological Journey, from Director Bart Layton - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com
Page 2 of 4http://voices.yahoo.com/the-imposter-riveting-psychological-journey-from-11655542.html
research I found a couple of articles which described this incident in which he had successfully stolen
the identity of this kid who had been missing.
JW: During your interviews with the principals, the family and the imposter, did you receive any
information that you hadn't had before you went into it or was it all shocking and new?
BL: There's a great deal of difference between reading about something reported, there was a very
good article in The New Yorker and in a British newspaper called The Guardian, but your right, it's
very shocking and surprising when you hear the story first hand.
I think you get an emotional understanding of it which you don't get when you read about it. I think
when you read about it in the articles you think it is incredibly hard to relate to a family that mistook a
Frenchman with brown eyes and brown hair and relatively dark olive skin for the blonde blue-eyed all
American son but when you sit with them [The Barclay's] their story is incredibly believable and
plausible and compelling and that's probably the most surprising bit of it.
JW: Why did you choose the particular style of shooting that you did? From the beginning the
audience knows the imposters identity; cat is out of the bag; the audience knows the imposter identity
and what he did.
BL: It's a good question and something we debated. The alternative is that you tell the family's story
and you don't reveal the deception until it comes out and then you have to go all the way through the
film right until the moment of the arrest before you introduce the imposter.
You have to tell this entire story of the family's journey, all of these things, and then you get to the end
and he gets arrested and that's the first time that you can kind of introduce him as a character because
you if you introduce him any earlier, well, the only logical moment of unveiling is when he was
physically unveiled by the FBI, by Charlie Parker and all the rest.
And at that point you're left with this huge question of how this could have possibly happened? Where
did he get the information? Then, at that point you would have go right back to the beginning.
With Producer Dimitri Dognais
Janet Walker: Did you walk away from those interviews with reactions or did you explore those
reactions and they didn't make it to air?
Dimitri Doganis (Producer): I think during the process of the different interviews from research
crews, early meetings and the filming the thing that was the most striking was that everyone on the
production team would constantly be having this debate on who they believed and what they thought
really happened and how did it happened. And that debate would lurch from side to side depending
on whom one had spoken to most recently or what new piece of information had come in.
So the process was constantly being surprised, often not by what was said but by how plausible it was
because so many of the events seem completely unbelievable on paper but in context and in
conversation you kind of understand how that might have happened and how it might have happen
that way.
And so the surprise wasn't necessary the events, the sequence of events was very clear from the
beginning. But what was significant, of those events, was constantly shifting and changing. The fact
that he did impersonate Nicolas, that he did so successfully, that he was accepted by the family, he did
come successfully to America, he was given a passport and then several months later was arrested and
all that's a matter of record and all quite easily to establish.
The one thing that's interesting and complex and constantly surprising is why? Why did he do it, why
did they accept him? How did all of these things come to pass, what did it mean? It wasn't so much
being surprised by the events, those were obvious from the get go; it was being surprised by what they
meant and that's was the challenge of the film how do you, [as a filmmaker] get into that area; not
what happened but why, what does it mean for the characters.
3. 21/03/2014 13:47THE IMPOSTER, a Riveting Psychological Journey, from Director Bart Layton - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com
Page 3 of 4http://voices.yahoo.com/the-imposter-riveting-psychological-journey-from-11655542.html
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JW: What do you think of the lack of forensic e and scientific evidence? It seems a bit shocking.
DD: You have to remember this is a story of its time. The events took place in 1997 when DNA is
available but not widely available, and certainly not widely available in rural Spain. And it is still very
expensive. And it is still pre 9-11 America where there is less of a level anxiety about security and
identity and also it's worth remembering that if someone passes away a family member is brought in
to identify them and their word serves as identification. Here they had a blood relative, immediate
family, giving, avowing that this is . . . this is their brother.
THE IMPOSTER is produced by A&E Films, Film 4 and Channel 4 along with A RAW production in
association with Red Box Films and Passion Pictures and is distributed by Indomina Media Inc.
THE IMPOSTER is spine chilling, with twists and turns, stunning revelations, unresolved
conclusions, preying on emotions and circumstance and using our own evidentiary methods to
perpetuate a brutal outrageously appalling con. Worth seeing!
In a summer of fantasy, the reality of THE IMPOSTER is shockingly worth seeing!
THE IMPOSTER is playing in select cities.
Published by Janet Walker
Janet Walker, a Los Angeles based Entertainment Reporter, has a fifteen year publishing history that includes news, fashion,
cuisine, philanthropy, celebrity interviews and entertainment writing in print, ne... View profile
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4. 21/03/2014 13:47THE IMPOSTER, a Riveting Psychological Journey, from Director Bart Layton - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com
Page 4 of 4http://voices.yahoo.com/the-imposter-riveting-psychological-journey-from-11655542.html
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![21/03/2014 13:47THE IMPOSTER, a Riveting Psychological Journey, from Director Bart Layton - Yahoo Voices - voices.yahoo.com
Page 2 of 4http://voices.yahoo.com/the-imposter-riveting-psychological-journey-from-11655542.html
research I found a couple of articles which described this incident in which he had successfully stolen
the identity of this kid who had been missing.
JW: During your interviews with the principals, the family and the imposter, did you receive any
information that you hadn't had before you went into it or was it all shocking and new?
BL: There's a great deal of difference between reading about something reported, there was a very
good article in The New Yorker and in a British newspaper called The Guardian, but your right, it's
very shocking and surprising when you hear the story first hand.
I think you get an emotional understanding of it which you don't get when you read about it. I think
when you read about it in the articles you think it is incredibly hard to relate to a family that mistook a
Frenchman with brown eyes and brown hair and relatively dark olive skin for the blonde blue-eyed all
American son but when you sit with them [The Barclay's] their story is incredibly believable and
plausible and compelling and that's probably the most surprising bit of it.
JW: Why did you choose the particular style of shooting that you did? From the beginning the
audience knows the imposters identity; cat is out of the bag; the audience knows the imposter identity
and what he did.
BL: It's a good question and something we debated. The alternative is that you tell the family's story
and you don't reveal the deception until it comes out and then you have to go all the way through the
film right until the moment of the arrest before you introduce the imposter.
You have to tell this entire story of the family's journey, all of these things, and then you get to the end
and he gets arrested and that's the first time that you can kind of introduce him as a character because
you if you introduce him any earlier, well, the only logical moment of unveiling is when he was
physically unveiled by the FBI, by Charlie Parker and all the rest.
And at that point you're left with this huge question of how this could have possibly happened? Where
did he get the information? Then, at that point you would have go right back to the beginning.
With Producer Dimitri Dognais
Janet Walker: Did you walk away from those interviews with reactions or did you explore those
reactions and they didn't make it to air?
Dimitri Doganis (Producer): I think during the process of the different interviews from research
crews, early meetings and the filming the thing that was the most striking was that everyone on the
production team would constantly be having this debate on who they believed and what they thought
really happened and how did it happened. And that debate would lurch from side to side depending
on whom one had spoken to most recently or what new piece of information had come in.
So the process was constantly being surprised, often not by what was said but by how plausible it was
because so many of the events seem completely unbelievable on paper but in context and in
conversation you kind of understand how that might have happened and how it might have happen
that way.
And so the surprise wasn't necessary the events, the sequence of events was very clear from the
beginning. But what was significant, of those events, was constantly shifting and changing. The fact
that he did impersonate Nicolas, that he did so successfully, that he was accepted by the family, he did
come successfully to America, he was given a passport and then several months later was arrested and
all that's a matter of record and all quite easily to establish.
The one thing that's interesting and complex and constantly surprising is why? Why did he do it, why
did they accept him? How did all of these things come to pass, what did it mean? It wasn't so much
being surprised by the events, those were obvious from the get go; it was being surprised by what they
meant and that's was the challenge of the film how do you, [as a filmmaker] get into that area; not
what happened but why, what does it mean for the characters.](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)