Taking benefit of doubt to the limit!

The Imposter (2012)

Gone are the days when documentaries were meant to be boring to be used as a tool to disseminate propaganda news of the Empire or sing praises of glory of the ruling regime. Documentaries in the 21st century are mostly investigative in nature. Some are even reenacted to re-live the suspense of story they try to impart.
It is quite difficult to fathom that events that took place in this documentary actually happened in real life. Some of the things sounds like a plot from a B-grade low budget spy movie but surprise, surprise, it actually took place.
A 13 year old boy, Nicholas Barclay, from St Antonio, Texas, goes missing in 1994. Despite extensive search, he was never found.

Nicholas Barclay, 13.

3 years later, the family receives a call from Spain. A teenage boy was found who could be their son. Nicholas' sister goes over to Spain, makes a positive identification of the boy and brings him back to US.

Frédéric Bourdin, supposed to Nicholas
at 17years!

You see, this boy, who was found is actually a serial impostor who finds joy in assuming other people's irony. This Algerian-French was, in 1997, when he made the allegation of being Nicholas Barclay, was 23 years old with dark hair and brown eyes. The real Nicholas was blonde with blue-green eyes! The impostor, Frédéric Bourdin, went to great lengths to hide his identity and hoodwink the Spanish police, American consulate there, the family and even the US authorities. The family attributed his change of personality, accent and even the change of colour of eyes and hair to his mocked up story of abduction by army personnel, child pornography and the like. Everybody bought the story and felt sympathetic for the ordeal that Nicholas had endured. 'Nicholas' started living the American life.
Trouble came in the form of a private eye who was called in by a TV company to look for 'the' missing teenager who was found after 3 years.

As the camera crew were filming the 'boy', the detective with the keen eye for details noted from a nearby portrait of the missing boy that their ear lobes differed tremendously. From his knowledge, he knew ear lobes varied from individual to individual as different as their fingerprints!

FBI came to the picture. Fingerprints of the imposter revealed that he had a long record with Interpol for impersonation.

Then, the family came to the spotlight. Everybody started asking why the family took a person as their son when the features were so different! Accusations were hurled on the possibility that the real Nicholas Barclay could have been murdered and it is their way of covering up.

Years of investigations never revealed anything new. Frédéric Bourdin served a jail sentence and was extradited back to France. After a few more impersonations, he subsequently married and had kids. Nicholas Barclay is still a missing person.

In hind sight, when we look at the turn of events, we sometimes feel like a fool for being taken for a royal spin around the countryside. On the other hand, we do not want to be the evil one for suppressing the truth and giving the benefit of doubt, just in case we are wrong. Sometimes, what appears as glaringly obvious may indeed be the wrong choice!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imposter_(2012_film)

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