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Jakob the Liar is a 1975 film from the GDR directed by Frank Beyer. In 1999, they made a remake with Jakob played by Robin Williams.
We are in the ghetto, in Germany, World War II is about to end, the Russians are at the gates …but when will they arrive?
Meanwhile, in the Jewish ghetto, they are under the Germans' thumb, working, doing manual labor, exhausting, crushing, eating little and poorly. It's an open-air prison with a curfew from 8:00 PM onwards, and don't you dare go out or you'll be shot. And if you're not shot, well or badly you'll die anyway: from hunger, from hardship, from exhaustion, or maybe because you kill yourself, what kind of life is this anyway? It's hell on earth. Or maybe it's just the antechamber to hell, because maybe later you might be deported.
Participation in public life is not allowed, newspapers are banned, the radio too.
But Jakob has a hidden radio!!!
And so Jakob, taking enormous risks, begins to spread, maybe just to his best friend, some little news he learns from his radio. The Russians are advancing, they are 120km away. In a week they should manage to liberate us… maybe even less, hang in there people!
And do you think his friend could keep such news only to himself? What a risk! If the Germans found out that there's a radio in the ghetto…
But Jakob is a liar…
A little over 20 years later, a film that has much in common with this, like the Jews and the war but especially the idea that a child shouldn't be made to understand what's happening, will win an Oscar for Best Foreign Film. A film that I quite liked, all in all, but that has a title, LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL, that makes me sick to say the least.
Jakob the Liar is an exceptional film, far superior to Life is Beautiful.
A film full of lyricism, poetry, a sweetness that I have rarely seen …and I've seen many, many films.
A refined film. A film, especially in the first part, even permeated by a strong ironic component, well present in the dialogues and human relationships of the unfortunate Jews. An irony that makes the film lighter, more bearable, because what we are seeing is too terrible …and it happened yesterday, nearby…
A sparse, essential scenography, a disconcerting, deadly soundtrack, the dark lament of an immense drama, agony on the pentagram.
The use of flashbacks of the protagonists is of great importance, recalling for a few seconds their recent past when they had a job, a position, love. Right there in the ghetto, in the same streets, in the same houses, once clean and bright, now devastated and filthy, shaken by bombs, by the madness of war.
Jakob, sad and subdued, tired and dejected but very strong, carries on, him and his lies, donor of illusions, of hope… because Jakob has his little niece to take care of and he will never give up and will let only her listen to the radio, in a chilling scene, the same chills that are coming to me as I write about this scene and remember it…
Because when the film ended and I went home, I too was sad and subdued, tired and dejected, just like Jakob.
Because certain films, once finished, maybe you don't turn on your smartphone to see how much crap you've received, how many whats up, how many likes, how many notifications …maybe you just think why the hell are humans so evil?
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