Jakob the Liar

In a Polish ghetto during the Second World War, Jakob Heym, the former owner of a small café, is caught on the streets after curfew and taken to German headquarters. While he waits there, he overhears a radio broadcast reporting setbacks for the German army at the hands of the Soviets. When he returns to the ghetto and passes the news on, word spreads that he must own a hidden radio, a crime that carries a death sentence. Unable to disappoint the people around him, who begin to depend on his daily reports for hope, Jakob keeps inventing encouraging bulletins about the progress of the war.

Peter Kassovitz directed the film, his second feature after Drôles d'oiseaux in 1993, and wrote the screenplay with Didier Decoin and Marsha Garces Williams, who produced alongside Steven Haft. Robin Williams plays Jakob, with Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, Alan Arkin, Michael Jeter and Bob Balaban among the cast. The film is a remake of the 1975 German production Jacob the Liar.

Released in September 1999, the film cost about 45 million dollars to make and took roughly 5 million dollars worldwide, a wide gap between its budget and its returns. On IMDb the audience rating stands at 6.7 out of 10 from a few hundred votes, while a critics' score of 4.7 out of 10 from 72 reviews marks a notably cooler response from reviewers than from viewers.