Goofs

When Kowalsky and Jacob share their final cigarette, Kowalsky lights Jacob's half, but fails to light his own. He is seen smoking his half a moment later.

The movie is set in Poland (hence the Polish-languaged signs on buildings, eg Jakob's café), but 'Mischa' is a Russian name (a diminutive form of 'Mikhail'/'Mikal' ('Michael').

The German officer referred to as "Herr General" wears the insignia of an SS-Colonel.

When Jakob is chasing after the newspaper, a wire pulling the newspaper is briefly visible.

The train locomotive in the lower left-hand corner of the DVD cover artwork is correct for southern California when the movie was released in 1999, but it's totally wrong for the movie's setting in 1944 Poland. Its cab profile was used on various diesel-electric models built by General Motors for the North American market from the early 1960s onwards, it has 1990s-style dual low-mounted safety lights, and its red-and-gray paint scheme bears an uncanny resemblance to that used by the Southern Pacific Railroad in the western United States in the late 20th century.

The right sleeve of Jacob's coat is torn from from the shoulder when at the room of the German officer on duty, but while going and leaving there it is not.

In spite of careful attention on German cars in the film, the Soviet tanks at the end are T-55 from the 1950s, while original wartime T-34 are easily available in Eastern Europe.

One of the supposed SS guards is wearing a field cap with the black-red-gold insignia of the modern German military, the Bundeswehr.

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.