Jakob the Liar

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Jakob the Liar

Directed by	Peter Kassovitz
Produced by	Steven Haft Marsha Garces Williams
Written by	Jurek Becker (novel) Peter Kassovitz & Didier Decoin (screenplay)
Starring	Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, Bob Balaban
Music by	Edward Shearmur
Cinematography	Elemér Ragályi
Editing by	Claire Simpson
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Entertainment
Release date(s)	September 24, 1999
Running time	120 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
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Jakob the Liar is a 1999 black comedy film directed by Peter Kassovitz and starring Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, and Bob Balaban.

The movie is set in 1944 in a ghetto in Poland, in the times of the Holocaust. The movie is based on the book by Jurek Becker about World War II Jewish Ghetto life. It's also a remake of the German DEFA film from 1975.

[edit] Plot

In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being falsely accused of being out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommandant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto. Jakob uses the chance to spread hope throughout the ghetto by continuing to tell favorable tales of information from "his secret radio." Jakob, however, has a real secret in that he is hiding a young Jewish girl who escaped from a camp transport train. These lies keep hope and humor alive among the ghetto inhabitants. The Germans learn of the mythical radio, however, and begin a search for the resistance hero who dares operate it.