Jacob the Liar (1975 film)
Jacob the Liar is a 1975 war drama film directed by Frank Beyer, adapted by Beyer and Jurek Becker from the latter's novel of the same title. Set in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Holocaust, the film centers on Jakob Heym, a Polish Jew who attempts to raise the morale inside the ghetto by sharing encouraging rumors that he claims he has heard on an (imaginary) radio. The film was a co-production between East Germany and Czechoslovakia. It premiered on East German television on 22 December 1974, and was released theatrically on 18 April 1975.
Theatrical release poster
Brodský, Beyer and others in the premiere of Jacob the Liar
Frank Paul Beyer was a German film director. In East Germany he was one of the most important film directors, working for the state film monopoly DEFA and directed films that dealt mostly with the Nazi era and contemporary East Germany. His film Trace of Stones was banned for 20 years in 1966 by the ruling SED. His 1975 film Jacob the Liar was the only East German film ever nominated for an Academy Award. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 until his death he mostly directed television films.
Frank Beyer 5 October 1963
Frank Beyer, Herbert Köfer and Bruno Apitz on the set of Naked Among Wolves.
Vlastimil Brodský (second from the left) and Frank Beyer (middle) before the premiere of Jacob the Liar at the Kosmos film theater in East Berlin.
Frank Beyer (left) receives the Heinrich-Greif-Preis for The Turning Point.