1944, in a ghetto in Poland: Jakob Heym accidentally overhears a news broadcast announcing the advancement of the Red Army. The news could give new courage to those who have lost all hope in the ghetto. In order to spread the news, Jakob has to lie about the circumstances through which he came to hear the news, as people are unlikely to believe him. Jakob heard the news, which he was never meant to learn about, in the offices of the Gestapo. He claims to have a secret radio. From then on, he is forced to come up with more news reports; the victims in the ghetto are given fresh hope and the number of suicides decreases. However, Jakob’s inventiveness can’t prevent the deportation from taking place.

Perhaps Jakob should have kept the news to himself: He overheard a news broadcast reporting the Red Army’s advance. He heard it on a radio in the offices of the Gestapo. He should have never found out about it, as the prisoners in the ghetto, located somewhere in Poland, were completely cut off from the outside world. But then young Mischa was about to risk his life to steal a few potatoes at the freight railway station, where the men were forced to work.

Jakob deters Mischa from going through with his plan by telling him that the Russian soldiers are advancing and that they are not very far. The news means there is hope that the prisoners in the ghetto will survive, so the news spreads quickly, against Jakob’s wishes. He has to explain how he came to hear the news. As no one would believe the truth, he has to tell a white lie. Jakob explains that he has a secret radio hidden in his apartment; he would be shot immediately if this illegal possession were to come to the attention of the Gestapo. However, the number of people who ask Jakob about any further news increases. Each of them searches for a new reason to hope and the suicide rate decreases. When Jakob finds the courage to tell his old friend Kowalski the truth, he commits suicide.

Out of fear, Jakob comes up with more lies; his radio isn’t working, he says, but his fellow sufferers find him a mechanic who would be able to repair his radio. There seems to be no end to the lies. Jakob finds it especially hard to answer young Lina’s questions, who is so naive she even believes that an old oil lamp is a radio. Others believe that Jakob’s behaviour is irresponsible, as it puts all of the residents in the ghetto in danger. The good-natured swindler comes to regret his lies more and more. In the end, the lies never save any lives, but merely provided relief to some during the last days of their lives, including young Lina, who cheers “Hooray, we’re going on a trip!” when they are being deported to an extermination camp.

At the beginning of the film it is stated that “The story of Jakob the Liar never took place. It certainly didn’t. But yet, maybe it did.” Precisely this state of uncertainty between fiction and reality is what characterises the entire film; even the location in which the story takes place. The geographical location of the ghetto is never mentioned, but all signs lead us to believe that the story takes place in Poland. When Jakob hears on the radio that “the Russians have already reached Bezanika”, it becomes evident yet again; Bezanika is fictitious, as is the hope that a saviour will arrive. It reminds us of the biblical waiting for the Saviour’s arrival, as well as the senseless perseverance of Vladimir and Estragon in Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”.

Jurek Becker’s exposé was presented to DEFA in 1963, but it was ignored. The author, who was detained along with his parents in the Łódź ghetto and later sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, wrote the story as a novel and it was only made into a film after the novel’s success. Beyer’s screen adaptation waives any external horrors or superficial cruelty. Quite the opposite. Beyer not only stages sequences of Jakob’s happy past, but he also includes young Lina’s fairy tale understanding of the world, making it to appear rather kitsch and perhaps, even beyond kitsch. “The story of Jakob the Liar is filled with poetry; comedy stands alongside tragedy and the absurd, and reality and the imaginary are fused together. A story of hidden wit and deep sadness which sizes up the strain of human existence. The story ends in a tragic, yet not necessarily pessimistic way.” (Beyer)

Critical reviews have partially criticised Beyer’s soft adaptation, yet the pain which emanates from it runs deeper. The fact that emphasising the sheer horror of the story is more damaging than enriching is evident in a second, aesthetically contrary adaptation of the story by Peter Kassovitz (JACOB THE LIAR, 1999, with Robin Williams in the lead role). The fact that director Beyer held back, showed how futile Jakob’s humanity was when faced with the most ultimate form of barbarianism, and at the same time, how indestructible human dignity can be, even during the darkest times of inhumanity.

Production Period

1974

Production Year

1974

color

color

Aspect Ratio

1:1,37

Duration

Feature-Length Film (61+ Min.)

Type

Feature Film

Genre

Drama, Anti-war / War Film

Topic

Violence, World War II, Friendship, Jewish Topics, Film History, Discrimination / Racism, Holocaust, National Socialism, Democracy / Human Rights

Available Media

Blu-ray Disc, DVD

Original Version

German (de)

Blu-ray Disc

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Indonesisch (id), Korean (ko), Romanian (ro), Czech (cs)

DVD

Subtitles

German (full), English (en), French (fr), Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Indonesisch (id), Korean (ko), Romanian (ro), Czech (cs)