Jakob the Liar

Jakob the Liar (1999)

Information at Internet Movie Database
Cinema in Focus, a social and spiritual commentary by Hal Conklin and Denny Wayman.
Movie Parables review.
Hollywood Jesus visual review.
Review, Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality & Health - Spiritual Practices for Human Being.
Themes
- Hope/Hopelessness
  - Robin Williams stars in this movie that has certain similarities with Life is Beautiful that came out at the same time. Williams play a Jew living in the Warsaw ghetto. It's a pretty gloomy place. There is at least one suicide each night. One day in the German headquarters he hears a radio telling where a battle is going on only a few hundred km away. When he relates this to a friend to keep him from doing something stupid, it becomes assumed that Jakob has a hidden radio. He is then pressed to tell more news. As long as there is news, there are no suicides in the ghetto. They have hope that deliverance is at hand. The movie ends with the smashing of that hope, but with an alternative possibility in which all the hope was fulfilled. (submitted by Darrel Manson, Artesia CA)
  - "Sometimes hope is more important than food."
- Truth/Truthfulness/Lie
  - Jakob's lies give hope. "Sometimes hope is more important than food."