Jakob the Liar

Jakob the Liar
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Peter Kassovitz
Screenplay by	Peter Kassovitz Didier Decoin
Based on	Jacob the Liar by Jurek Becker
Produced by	Steven Haft Marsha Garces Williams
Starring	Robin Williams Alan Arkin Bob Balaban Michael Jeter Armin Mueller-Stahl Liev Schreiber
Cinematography	Elemér Ragályi
Edited by	Claire Simpson
Music by	Edward Shearmur
Production companies	Columbia Pictures Blue Wolf Productions Kasso Inc.
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	September 24, 1999 (1999-09-24)
Running time	120 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$45 million
Box office	$4,956,401 (domestic)[1]

Jakob the Liar is a 1999 American-made Holocaust film directed by Peter Kassovitz, produced by Steven Haft and Marsha Garces Williams. It is written by Kassovitz and Didier Decoin based on the 1969 German novel Jacob the Liar, by Jewish author Jurek Becker. The film stars Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon and Bob Balaban. The film is set in 1944 in a ghetto in German-occupied Poland during the Holocaust and tells the story of a Polish-Jewish shopkeeper named Jakob Heym, who attempts to raise the morale inside the ghetto by sharing encouraging rumors that he claims to have heard on a radio. An earlier film based on the novel is the 1975 East German-Czechoslovak film Jakob der Lügner.