Jakob the Liar is a 1999 black comedy film directed by Peter Kassovitz and starring Robin Williams. The movie is set in 1944 in a ghetto in Poland, in the times of the Holocaust and is based on the book by Jurek Becker about World War II Jewish Ghetto life. 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.

release year: 1999

star(s): Robin Williams