Unit 27 Task 2
The Imposter
The Imposter is a feature length documentary on a
young Frenchman who claimed to be an American
Families 16 year old son who had been missing for 3
years. The Film is by Bart Layton and was made in
2012.
The Documentary has a fascinating story, although it
al happened in the late 90’s. It features interviews
from the missing boy’s Family, Friends, Neighbours,
Local Policeman and even the Imposter himself. This
is quite rare in any documentary that a Criminal in
which the documentary is featured is openly
interviewed and tells his story. A lot of the film is
done in reconstructions with actors, this adds to
affect as if we were really there. The remainder is
cutaways and archive footage.
Frédéric Bourdin was a 23 year old French man in
Spain when he claimed to be 16 year old Nicolas
Barkalay. Nicolas had gone missing 3 years from his
home in Texas. It was a huge shock for the family
when they believe there son has rang after he has
been found thousands of miles away in Spain.
Bourdin First rang police station from all across
America claiming he was a Spanish police officer and
he had found a child believed to be from the states.
This gave him the information he needed so he could
choose a missing teenager’s identity to
steal.Frederic’s original plan was too be put in a
children’s home in Spain, to escape his
underprivileged life and hopefully have better one. He
states it was like being “Reborn” as he was never
loved as a child.
Frederic’s story was that he was taken to Spain as
part of a child prostitution ring and although Nicolas
had Blond hair Blue eyes and Bourdin having Brown
eyes and a French accent still managed to convince
the family he was there child and the authorities. Both
said his story was so vivid and horrible they didn’t
want to believe it could be a lie. Frederic died his hair
and got the same small tattoos that Nicolas had. He
claimed he was raped on regular occasions and hair
was died and even chemicals were put in his eyes to
change the colour.
Frederic, believed to be Nicolas was flown back to his
home in Texas and was instantly greeted by the
American Embassy. They interviewed him where he
told his realistic story. Amazingly Frederic managed
to live as Nicolas for 6 months. He had everyone
fooled into thinking he was a teen who had been
through traumatic stress. In my opinion the family
believed he was Nicolas because they wanted to
believe it was Nicolas, All the wanted was him back
home. Frederic had to pretend he knew various
people he had never met although he said he couldn’t
remember much due to his trauma.
After a month or so of living there the FBI wanted to
ask him a few questions to get to the bottom of what
happened to him. She was the person who doubted
him the most, she stated he didn’t look 16 as she
could see the shadow of a dark black beard. She also
said that Nicolas would not have picked up an accent
even if he had been forced to speak another language
like he claimed. Nicolas’s story, which had so many
people believing he was who he said he was, was that
he was abducted by military and flown overseas, he
was then kept in a room with other kids. They were
subjected by high ranking military to sexual abuse. He
told the FBI worker each night children were raped
by Military people from America, Mexico and Europe.
He also said they would torture him by breaking has
hand, burning him, selling his body, experimented on
and also kept in line by doing military tactics. Spanish
would play in the room and they would also have a
voice playing over and over saying you are not you.
He said he finally escaped after a door was left open
and he ran away and discovered he was in Spain.
Although she was a professional she was so horrified
by this she believed him.
The last thing the FBI wanted was this story to hit the
media, however not longer after Frederic as Nicolas
was on a TV news interviewing telling his “horrific”
ordeal. Frederic said he did this because he wanted
the media attention to make Nicolas more real.
A local private investigator saw the interview and
new there was something wrong about it and began
researching further into the truth. As well as the
private investigator Frederic went to a child hospital
specialist who made it definite he couldn’t have been
brought up in an English-speaking household. He
called the FBI agent, who prompted the family that
this was not there Nicolas, however this went
unnoticed as the family went on as if it was. A DNA
test was soon called, getting DNA from Nicolas’s
mother who refused to first go with the FBI. Even
now over 15 years later there is speculation whether
the family had something to hind and know what
really happened to Nicolas. Frederic said it all added
up how Nicolas’s sister when picking him up from
Spain did everything for him, for example showing
him the family pictures so he knew who was who. He
believed the family knew it wasn’t him but for some
reason played along. He also believes the family killed
Nicolas and covered it up, he perfect reason to accept
him in to there home, to feed there lie. Frederic was
soon forced to give a DNA test, which was sent to
embassies proving him a Serial Imposter to be
Frederic Bourdin, a Serial Imposter wanted by
Interpol. In his whole life Frederic Bourdin took over
500 identities, 3 of which were missing children. He
was sentenced to 6 years in prison and later got
married claiming he would never impose as someone
again, although before this he did try to steal another
missing teen’s identity.
I think this documentary tells an amazing story and a
mystery that is still yet not solved. It has different
stories from different people and us as a viewer can
decide what we believe. It ends quite abruptly with
Frederic saying “ I don’t give a fuck about anyone
else” this is the sort of quick ending I wanted for my
script. It is done in a formal way but doesn’t need a
narrator because of the vast commentary from the
people involved. This is one of my favourite
documentaries as it is very intense and we want to
find out more and more which is everything I would
look for in a documentary.
The Dudesons Movie
The Dudeson’s Movie is a feature length documentary
about The Dudeson’s a group of Finnish childhood
friends who started doing stunts from a young age
and rose to fame. They have been compared to
Jackass and Nitro Circus all though they were the first
around. Jarno Laasala and Tukka Tiensuu made this
documentary in 2006.
The Dudeson’s consist of Jarno, Jarpi, Jukka and HP.
Jarpi is seen as the daredevil, they say “you tell him to
do something and he will do it”. Jukka is seen as the
showman as he wants constant attention and his
main aim is to make people laugh. Jarno is the brains
of the operation who first started filming and editing
videos of them doing crazy stuff. He quoted “ I don’t
care what happens as long as I get it on camera”. HP is
known as the bone breaker as he is “Always breaking
his leg or ankle”. As well as being a Dudeson he is also
a school teacher.
Whilst filming the Dudeson’s live on The Dudeson’s
Ranch. This is where they do the majority of their
crazy stunts; this could be anything from blowing up
their house to jumping off it on a motorbike. They
have a TV series about them and also one in their
native Finnish language. As well of a spin off whilst
there in America. Jarpi is well known for his missing
thumb, which he lost using a power tool. Not all there
stunts go well as they have all been close to being
seriously injured or the destroy there car/house. The
dudeson’s have also being sued by a neighbour they
call “Mr Hitler” as they dug a giant whole in his front
yard so he drove right into it. They were sued for 5
grand to pay for damages. HP was also very close to
death after a car stunt went wrong and the car
imploded cm away from his head.
Jarpi came from a background of skateboarding and
doing other sports. Jarpi and Jukka have been friends
since early childhood, meeting at school. The said
they have always been doing crazy stuff like playing
pranks or trying stunts even knowing they will get
hurt. Jukka is described as full of energy and
compared to the energizer bunny. He is also the
pranker of the groups playing pranks since he was a
young boy. The others describe Jarno as “The
Wizard”. He is always filming or editing to make sure
he gets good footage. The rest of the Dudeson’s are
constantly playing pranks on him, for example locking
him in his computer room with a pig or even lighting
his room on fire. Jarno is the one who comes up with
the stunt ideas. HP is a huge snowboard lover; this is
where the other dudeson’s met him. He is very calm
and collected probably because he was also a
schoolteacher. He has also done the majority of the
car stunts.
All the dudeson’s live by the artic circle meaning
when it is winter, the snow is extremely heavy and
the temperatures go extremely low. They see this
usually as an opportunity to skinny dip in a near
frozen lake. This just one of the many things they do
see as controversial and dangerous. Even with a “do
not try at home” warning they have been criticised as
doing “stupid” things, which could easily be copied.
There are many cutaways of shots from around
Finland. It also goes through the seasons of Finland
saying what they are doing each season. The
documentary ends with them burning down there
house.0
The dudeson’s is filmed by a small camera crew one
of them being Jarno. He was the one who started just
filming them with his camera. As the series has gone
on the crew has got bigger and the cameras and
equipment have got bigger. This documentary is
made up of old footage and footage from other
seasons as well as some filmed specially for the
movie. The rest is interviews from each Dudeson’s
similar to how ‘The Imposter’ was made up of
interviews.