Jakob the Liar (1999)

Director:

Peter Kassovitz

Writers (WGA):

Jurek Becker (novel)
Peter Kassovitz (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

24 September 1999 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Tagline:

When all hope was lost, he invented it.

Plot:

In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew...

Plot Keywords:

Death | Death Of Protagonist | Concentration Camp | Holocaust | Hope

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Robin Williams	...	Jakob
Hannah Taylor-Gordon	...	Lina (as Hannah Taylor Gordon)
Éva Igó	...	Lina's Mother (as Eva Igo)
István Bálint	...	Lina's Father (as Istvan Balint)
Justus von Dohnanyi	...	Preuss
Kathleen Gati	...	Hooker
Bob Balaban	...	Kowalsky
Alan Arkin	...	Frankfurter
Michael Jeter	...	Avron
Mark Margolis	...	Fajngold
János Gosztonyi	...	Samuel (as Janos Gosztonyi)
Liev Schreiber	...	Mischa
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Kirschbaum
Ádám Rajhona	...	The Whistler (as Adam Rajhona)
Antal Leisen	...	Peg-Leg

Also Known As:

Jakob le menteur (France)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence and disturbing images.

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

France | USA | Hungary

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Rankcolor)

Sound Mix:

Dolby | SDDS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #36159) | South Korea:12 | Malaysia:U | Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-12 | France:U | Germany:12 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | UK:12

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company:

TriStar Pictures

Trivia:

Armin Mueller-Stahl, who plays Dr. Kirschbaum (the Professor) was also in Jakob, der Lügner (1975) (upon which the 1999 film is based) as Roman Stahm, the brother of the character who was shot.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: At the beginning of the film, when Jakob starts chasing the paper, it is clearly light outside, even though it is 7:30 pm in the winter in Poland. Then, 25 minutes later, when Jakob told to go to the police building, it is quite dark. In the winter, the sun would have completely set hours before.

Quotes:

Jakob Heym: Hitler goes to a fortune-teller and asks, "When will I die?" And the fortune-teller replies, "On a Jewish holiday." Hitler then asks, "How do you know that?" And she replies, "Any day you die will be a Jewish holiday."

Movie Connections:

Featured in Imaginary Witness: Hollywood and the Holocaust (2004)

Soundtrack:

Gestillte Sehnsucht, Op. 91, NR 1

Very good movie

Well in my 9th grade history class in school we are learning about WW2 and so we watched Jakob the Liar and I think it was great, Robin Williams does good in the movie. I think they did the movie real well and really do good at showing how it was back in the 1940's during the war and how the Jews were treated. And i like how hey put some comedy into it also but not to much. When watching the movie i was very entertained the whole time. And the whole time you are left in suspense trying to figure out what is going next and what is going to happen to the main character Jakob with all the lying he does if either he was going to get caught or get away with it. And also how long he was going to go with the lie of him having a radio.And i just recommend this movie to teens or teachers who are looking for a good World War 2 movie.