Jakob the Liar (1999)

Release date: 1999-09-24
Country: France|Hungary|USA
Language: English
Director: Peter Kassovitz
Production Co: Columbia Pictures, Blue Wolf Productions, Kasso Inc. Productions
Genre: Drama, War
Rating: 6.6/10
Length: 2h

Storyline

In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out near curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, 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. A rather uplifting and slightly humorous film about World War II Jewish Ghetto life.