The Imposter which was released in 2012 is about the astonishing 1997 case of the French confidence trickster Frédéric Bourdin, who successfully managed to impersonated Nicholas Barclay, a Texas boy who disappeared at the age of 13 in 1994.

Bourdin, who turned out to have a long record of impersonating various children, real or imaginary, embellished his claim to be Nicholas Barclay by alleging that he had been kidnapped for purposes of sexual abuse by Mexican, European, and U.S. military personnel and transported from Texas to Spain.

The impersonation was eventually discovered as a result of the suspicions of a private investigator, Charles (Charlie) Parker, and an FBI agent, Nancy Fisher. Bourdin subsequently made a full confession, and in the film he elaborates on the various stages in his impersonation.