Jakob, der Lügner

Plot synopsis:
In a Jewish ghetto in German-occupied Poland, a man named Jakob is caught on the streets after curfew. He is told to report to a German military office where he finds the officer in charge passed out drunk. The radio is running and Jakob hears a broadcast about the advances of the Soviet Army. Eventually, Jakob sneaks out and goes home. Later he tells his friends that the Russians are not very far away. As no one believes he went to the Nazi office and came out alive, Jakob makes up a lie, claiming he owns a radio – a crime punishable by death. This puts Jakob in a difficult position since he is constantly asked for further news. He then starts encouraging his friends with false reports about the advance of the Red Army towards their ghetto. The residents, who are desperate and starved, find new hope in Jakob's stories. Even when he eventually confesses to his friend that only the first report was true and all the rest is made up, his friend points out that his stories give people hope and a will a to live. The film ends with the deportation of Jakob and the others to the extermination camps.

Tags: comedy, fantasy, murder, suicidal, violence, flashback, tragedy

Review:
The Best East German Film Ever Made.
The visuals of Aryan supremacy in Leni Reifenstahl's Nazi propaganda films, images of mountains of dead Jews and extremely inhumane conditions in death camps in Schindler's List, serve not merely to drive the film narrative but stir our emotions as well.
These images have conditioned us to read such films and documentaries using stereotypes of both the Jews and the Nazi  Jews are good and the Nazi, evil.
The film Jakob the Liar explores the holocaust in a new light, presenting anti-Semitism in a relatively subtle way without compromising its substance as well as the film's power to move human emotion.The music is monotonous suggesting the monotony of the protagonists' lives in the ghetto.
Close-ups also give specific information about the character, their feelings, the way they live, the things they've gone thought and their relationships with each other.
Midway in the film, we already have a bond with the characters, we already know their real feelings despite the lightness, surrealistic and oftentimes humorous treatment of the scenes.
It is also quite extraordinary to depict the Nazi they way this film did considering that this is a holocaust film and one of the first East German film to tackle the subject.
Unlike in other film where the Nazis are portrayed as unreasonably evil and sadistic, here we are given a glimpse of their humanity.
In the introductory scene where a tower guard tells Jakob to report to Gestapo headquarters for not complying with the curfew, we saw instances where Jakob would have surely been severely punished or even killed but the officers were surprisingly reasonable and just.
We also saw guards who are not necessarily the perfect Aryan depicted in Riefenstahl films.
There was also a scene where one guard beats up a Jew (Kowalski), then later returns and drops two sticks of cigarettes for Kowalski - an unspoken apology for having beaten up the Jew. A Nazi apologizing to a Jew in a holocaust film!
This is not a movie pitting the Jews against their Nazi guards like the director's own "Naked among Wolves"; this is a film about a people's struggle to maintain their dignity and humanity amidst the hardships they have suffered.The film started with glimpses of the ghetto and Jakob checking out his sick niece, all these visuals already gives us an idea of the life of the protagonist and the place he lives in.
Then in a very short verbal exchange with one of the ghetto's denizen, Jakob gives us a background of his situation, that a guard took his watch from him.
The guy he was talking to on the other hand warns him about the curfew to which he answers that without his watch, has no way to tell time.
This sequence tells us that first, the guards can take and do take from the Jews anything they want and second, that the people are in constant fear of the guards and dare not disobey any rules lest one wants to be severely punished or killed.
It also tells us that in the event that Jakob gets killed, he will be leaving his young and sick niece to care for herself.
The character's actions and mood also imply of a prevailing state of constant fear - whether that of being killed or seeing someone close to you die a meaningless death.The Jews in the film were waiting for an inevitable annihilation, a fate they have long accepted until Jakob gave them an alternate view of the future because of his news of a possible liberation by the Russians.Through out the film, we are still constantly given pieces of Jewish life before the ghetto.
Through flashbacks and what the characters say, we are presented concrete glimpses of how their lives of the films protagonists were before the ghetto.
Everybody suffers, everyone is subjected to the harshness of ghetto life everyday there's no distinction in class, social status, age and/or sex.
Frank Bayer told the story and made us feel what the characters felt using visuals  and very powerful visuals at that..
An exception is the 1974 DEFA (GDR successor to pre-1945 Ufa Film Studio) production "Jacob the Liar", which enjoyed a brief exposure in the US in the late '70s, even being nominated for an Academy Award.
Although it can be viewed without, the subtitles (your choice of language)are well-worded and legible."Jacob" centers on a man inadvertently finding himself a focus of hope among the doomed in a Polish ghetto.
Billed as a tragic comedy, the acting and pacing of the story are equal to the serious nature of the subject.Director Frank Beyer's "Jacob" should not be confused with the 1999 Hollywood remake starring the talented (but often glib and facetious) Robin Williams.
In 1944, in Poland, the Jew Jakob Heym (Vlastimil Brodský) breaks the curfew in the ghetto where he lives and a guard in the lookout sends him to see the chief of the guards.
Jakob is released by the German, but overhears a radio broadcasting that the Russians are advancing towards their town.
On the next morning, his comrade Mischa (Henry Hübchen) wants to risk his life to steal a couple of potatoes in a German store, Jakob tells that the Russians are coming and confides that he has a radio.
Soon the secret Jakob has told to Mischa is known by the residents of the ghetto and Jakob notes that his lies give hope to the Jews, reducing the number of suicide.
Meanwhile his niece Lina (Manuela Simon), who is sick, gets better with Jakob stories and believes that clouds are made of cotton balls.
"Jakob, der Lügner" is a dramatic film with a beautiful and heartbreaking story of hope and survival in one of the saddest and darkest moments of the contemporary history.
The analogy between Jakob's radio that gives hope to his comrades and the cotton balls that helps his niece to live a fairytale is the summit of this tale and the open conclusion where the viewer does not know what he will tell to Lina are amazing.
I would reccommend this film to anyone who would enjoy a new outlook on life.
I know that is one of the things I got from watching this movie.
This movie is a story full of lies that brought more hope to the Jews living in the Ghetto.
Jakob was the one being outside after curfew and he had to report to the Police, and after walking into the station he heard some news on the Radio.
He thought that it was good news that the Russians were coming closer.
After a short while the whole Ghetto was talking about those news.
Jakob saw that everybody was feeling much better so he continued to tell lies about the news.
It also gives hope to the Jewish people in the Ghetto and Jakob was having good intentions but it just complicated itself more and more..
Jacob the LiarI liked this movie, and I think it had good lessons to learn from.
She was completely innocent throughout the entire movie, and I felt that she showed not everyone had lost hope during the time.
Jacob starting telling stories about the Russians and other things he knew about the war.
But in the end, everyone was unhappy because their optimism was crushed with the sign that said everyone was to gather together with less than 5 kilos in luggage so they could `go away'.I think my favorite scene was when the old man thought he heard voices in the freight car.
The reality was that there was someone in the car, but they never showed who and a guard shot the old man before he could tell anyone.
The scene sparked my curiosity on who it was exactly in the car and why that person was being held in there, or if they were being held in the at all.The whole radio lie caused a lot of problems in the movie, and that's why I said above that there were some good lessons to be learned in the movie.
One lie sparked another for him, and that got him in deeper into his stories until so many people were asking about the radio that he just couldn't make anything else up and he finally told his friend.
The movie shows that lying for whatever cause is never a good cause no matter how much you think it may help the situation.
Although this wasn't my favorite movie in class so far, I did enjoy watching it, and it kept my attention throughout the story..
The original award-winning "Jacob the Liar".
This was the first and only East German film ever to be nominated for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar.
For all the accolades the film received, I must say that I enjoyed the recent American remake, directed by a Hungarian Holocaust Survivor, much more.
In any case, the original is also good, though disappointing if you enjoyed the recent JACOB...
Interestingly, he also starred in the recent remake as the sixtyish doctor in the film.
This East German movie is a very unusual movie about the Holocaust because it focuses on life within the ghetto.
Whatever is the case, this aspect of the film did surprise me a bit.Now as for the rest of the film, it was marvelous and provided an odd insight into life in the ghettos.
I have not seen the recent remake starring Robin Williams, so I can't really compare the two, but my inclination is almost always to go with the originals.PS--The English captioning for this film is pretty poor.
Only a very few films have succeeded in treating the plight of the Jews under the Nazis with a sense of humor, but this is one of them.
In a Jewish ghetto in 1944, Jacob is brought to the police station for curfew violation.
There he hears news on the radio that the Russians are advancing nearer.
He uses this hopeful news to stop a fellow ghetto resident from committing sure suicide by trying to steal extra food.
But in a moment of foolishness, Jacob claims he heard the news on his own secret radio.
Soon the entire town is hounding him for positive news, and the shy quiet Jacob has become an unwanted celebrity and bringer of hope, forcing him into a moral quandary and more lies.
The power of this simple fable is enhanced by some very touching flashbacks where we see these now beaten down characters as their lives were just a few years before – full of love, laughter, food to eat, nice homes.
Vlastimil Brodsky is great as Jacob, even if he's unfortunately dubbed into German.
(This was the only East German film ever nominated for an Oscar).
Exemplary Situations of life in a Jewish Ghetto, during the reign of Hitler's forces were very much present in "Jakob der Lügner".
One such occurrence of how the Jews tried to deal with their new realities involved the substitution of thoughts about reality and the invading/controlling Nazi War machine in many of their lives, for other exciting and positive experiences, of which they tried to focus.
Jakob tries to focus on such an experience, which occurred in his past, before he was forced to move to the Ghetto.
Through his invention of the "radio broadcasts", he helps others living in the Ghetto to think of a reality, on which they can believe, due to its similarity with their wishes for their futures and even for their reality under Nazi control to be different than it was in reality..
A historically very significant east German movie.
The role of Jacob is that he is a Jewish man who lives in Poland at the time of the Nazi-rule.
He falsely tells a coworker about a radio he owns and he tells him good news about the Russian Army getting closer and closer everyday.
This lie spreads quickly thru the Jewish ghetto and immediately all coworkers ask Jacob daily about news.
In desperation Jacob makes up good news and spreads them around the ghetto.
As the movie moves along it shows violence and prosecution of the Jewish people.
At the end of the movie the ghetto including Jacob leave their home town and head in unknown direction.
Jacob lied about the radio and spread good news to keep hope and live in his community.
The acting is mixed--Manuela Simon, who plays Jacob's ten-year old (or so) niece, out-acts them all, except for of course Vlastimil Brodský (Jacob) and Erwin Geschonneck (Kowalski) who do give fine performances.
It reminded me a bit of Gus Van Sant's "Elephant," where we see the mundane, somewhat boring day in the life of some high school students--it moves at a snail's pace, but that's what makes the ending especially shocking and disturbing.
So I have a lot of nits to pick with this film, but I'll be haunted by the ending forever.
The film is about Jacob, an old Jewish man.
He lies throughout the movie that he has a Radio, just to keep the hopes up of the people around him.
Everyday he tells the people around him that the Russians are moving closer and that soon they will be free from the Nazis.
As the movie goes on things get more complicated and at the end he decides to tell the truth, but no one believes him.
Jacob the liar, one of the great German films.
By using close-up shots, we could see and feel the character's feelings and emotions first hand, as if we are right in front of them, every detail of it, and we can really relate to that kind of scene, and that makes the film more personal and up-close to the viewers.
Another thing is the claustrophobic environment which depicts the kind of life in the polish ghetto and makes us feel and experience that we are also in that environment.
Another interesting shots in these film is the long shot used in the somewhat castle like structure and the clouds in the end part.
Another intriguing fact here, that's the first ever German Film that I had watched in colored and so does Frank Beyer's first time to use modern technology to enhance his film.
The blending of colors as I may say is good and it really enhances the scenes and the character's emotion.
You could see that much livelier and lighter colors appears when Jacob and his niece were in a dream sequence, so does when people gets hope from the news Jacob brings, their faces light-up and so does the surrounding.
When it come to the storyline and background of the film, you could easily see that the film really focuses on people's reactions, emotions and their life as a whole in the ghetto rather than really opposing and getting into the antifascist theme that Beyer usually does in his films.
I have also seen the remake of this film, the one starred by Robin Williams.
I really never thought that this film is much better than the remake.
Nothing beats the original.To sum it all up, I think it's really one of the best movies Frank Beyer has ever done..
"Jakob, der Lügner" or "Jacob the Liar" is an East German 100-minute movie from 1974, so this one is already over 40 years old.
Went his film came out, World War II had been over for 30 years approximately, so this is also the gap in time between what we see and when this was made.
It may have been the subject that appealed to the Academy as it plays in the Jewish ghetto in the final years of Nazi Germany.
And it is the story of one man, the title character, a career-defining performance by Czech actor Vlastimil Brodský.
I would not call it great or one of the very best I have seen from the year 1974, but it was still a pretty good watch, mostly thanks to Brodský.
Life in the ghettos of Poland  we can't see it enough  the lessons are that important!
Lives condemned to Purgatory  stripped of their possessions  relocated  waiting for the trains  waiting for "resettlement"  waiting to see if the unthinkable was more than rumor.The feeling of hopelessness would be overwhelming  yet the feeling of hope would also be present as that is human nature  and that is perfectly captured in this remarkable East German film!
Who would think that such a great film could come out of E Germany in 1975!
PS: Agree with the review that stated that "the English captioning for this film is pretty poor." I don't speak German but could easily tell it was off.
The movie starts with a violin and scenes of the Jewish ghetto.
Jakob is one of many Jews in a German-controlled, Polish ghetto.
He twists the story and it soon is believed that he possess a radio.
In order to protect his exaggeration, he continues to tell more and more lies by pretending he hears them on the radio.
His lies have a huge impact on camp, but he eventually needs to tell the truth to his friend Kowalski, who kills himself out of despair for living another day in the ghetto.
The Jakob's lie remains largely undiscovered, his street is eventually deported to their presumed death.At the beginning of watching the movie I was quite sick of seeing another German movie about WW2.
Though the obvious interpretation is that life in the ghetto was terrible, and that Jakob's lives were pure hearted, it's also a statement on underlying scientific notions that we cannot legitimately achieve through personal work what we can do together.
That notion is very clear for an East German movie.
I enjoyed the way the film cut to flashbacks to explain who characters were.
The movie knows that abuses are known, it's the stories of relationships that aren't as things like letters and radio were banned.