Jakob the Liar is a 1999 American tragicomedy 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 German-occupied Poland in the times of the Holocaust and is based on the book by Jurek Becker about World War II Jewish ghetto life. It is also a remake of the East German DEFA film Jakob der Lügner from 1975. In the Poland of early 1944, a Polish-Jewish shopkeeper named Jakob is summoned to the German headquarters after being falsely accused of being out after curfew. While... waiting for the commander, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast speaking about Soviet offensives. Returned to the ghetto, Jakob shares his information with a friend, sparking rumors that there is a secret radio within the ghetto. After hestitating, Jakob decides to use the chance to spread hope throughout the ghetto by continuing to tell the optimistic, fantastic tales that he allegedly heard from "his secret radio" and his lies keep hope and humor alive among the isolated ghetto inhabitants.
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| Release date: | September 24, 1999 |
| Directed by: | Peter Kassovitz |
| Rated: |  |
| Runtime: | 120 Minutes |
| Producer: | Steven Haft, Marsha Garces Williams |
| Editor: | Claire Simpson |
| Music by: | Edward Shearmur |
| Cinematography: | Elemér Ragályi |
| Screenplay by: | Peter Kassovitz, Didier Decoin |
| Estimated budget: | $15,000,000 |
| Adapted from: | Jacob the Liar |