It’s 1994: a 13-year-old boy disappears from his home in San Antonio, Texas. Three and a half years later, he is found alive, thousands of miles away, in Spain. Disoriented and quivering with fear, he divulges his shocking story of kidnap and torture. His family is overjoyed to bring him home. But all is not what it seems. Sure, he has the same tattoos, but he looks decidedly different, and he now speaks with a strange accent. Why doesn’t the family seem to notice these glaring inconsistencies? It’s only when an investigator starts asking questions that this astounding true story takes an even stranger turn.
Like his canny subject, gifted filmmaker Bart Layton pulls off an astonishing coup. Buoyed by eye-catching dramatizations and an enthralling structure that crisscrosses time and place, THE IMPOSTER unfolds as a gripping thriller that leaves us dizzy, yet certain that truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.
Bart Layton, a British filmmaker known for creating innovative visuals and for challenging conventions, has directed a number of acclaimed documentaries for both British and American broadcasters. He has been a finalist for the Royal Television Society’s best single documentary award and has been a finalist for best documentary series at the Grierson British Documentary Awards. He is the creative director of the award-winning British production company, RAW.
