Synopsis:
In 1944, Jacob Heym is summoned to the ghetto's district police station in order to be punished. However, through a lucky circumstance, he manages to leave the station unharmed. While at the police station, Jacob hears a news report from the radio which he retells the next day to a despondent friend who is about to commit suicide. The sentence: "the Russians are twenty kilometers from Bezanika" - gives his friend a renewed reason to live. When asked how he knows this bit of information, Jakob says: "I know, because I have a radio" because no one would believe he could have made it out of the police station alive after hearing a news report. No one in the ghetto is allowed to have a radio and all are eager to hear the news from the outside world, so seeking hope, everyone continually pesters Jacob to relate current news. Initially, Jacob is reluctant to create his news reports; he lies they help to alleviate the unbearable life of those around him. His lies, however, cannot stop the machinery that brings death to all the ghetto inhabitants. Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film in 1976. Columbia Pictures released a re-make of the same title in 1999, with Robin Williams in the leading role.

Press Comments:
"While dozens of contemporary films have deservedly died and have long since been buired in archive tombs, ... Beyer's film is a cinematic gem which offers much to talk about and to learn from." -- Renate Holland-Moritz in the Berlin Eulenspiegel, 8/1975)

"On the cinema screen, we don't see any showy drama. No pictures of beatings, torture and death. No chase scenes, no heroes and no action. There is nothing about this film that reminds one of Hollywood's tried and true formula of success. We only see a depiction of people (also those who wield power and instill fear as if it were their lawful duty)." -- Elke Schieber in Regie: Frank Beyer, Berlin 1995

"The material was there since 1965, after which it appeared as a novel and became successful: Jacob the Liar by Jurek Becker." -- Das zweite Leben der Filmstadt Babelsberg

"Jurek Becker's Jacob the Liar broke with the tradition of the anti-fascist genre by treating the story of Jews in a Nazi ghetto as a senitmental fairy tale." -- The Oxford History of World Cinema

"Forceful, funny, and poignant." -- The New York Times

"A movie of quiet power, deep integrity and shattering insight." -- Newsweek

"An extraordinary film ... remarkable in wringing much full-blooded, absurdly funny comedy from a situation in which every resonance appalls." -- Bloombury Foreign Film Guide

"...the best film to come out of the former East Germany." -- Toronto Star

"The beauty of this film is in its simplicity. There's no mugging for comedic effect, no pat jokes, no elaborate fantasies as in Life Is Beautiful. Set in a confined neighborhood and filmed like a play on spare yet realistic sets, the bitter comedy is loaded with human quirks and nuances." -- San Fransisco Chronicle November 5, 1999

"The second Jakob the Liar is a warmer, more satisfying film, which says as much about the waning power of history as it recedes in the rearview as it does about Hollywood production values." -- SF Weekly 1999

Jacob the Liar with Armin Mueller-Stahl was rated "A-" by Entertainment Weekly, Issue 535 April 14, 2000

Jacob the Liar was given 2 stars by the video review publication, Video Librarian.

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