Jakob the Liar is based on a 1969 novel and a 1974 German-language film version of it. It is a Holocaust story about a Jew keeping hope alive in the Warsaw ghetto by inventing good news his neighbors believe he's hearing on an illegal radio.

Robin Williams takes the title role, a deposed restaurateur eking out a living as slave labor for the Gestapo along with the frightened remains of a once-lively Jewish village. The Jews, targeted for disposal by the Third Reich, all live under the assumption that unless the war ends and they are freed, they will die.

Writer-director Peter Kassovitz (himself a Holocaust survivor) sets this scene in grays and blacks, with barely enough color left for the yellow stars of David on the front and back of each Jew's coat. No sun shines, and the sky is only slightly brighter than the expressions on the people's faces.

It begins when Jakob is sent to German headquarters by a sentry who wrongly accuses him of being outside after the curfew. The headquarters excuses Jakob and sends him home, but not before Jakob overhears a snippet of a newscast describing a Russian army attack on German troops at a nearby village. Elated, he spreads the first news the isolated Jews have heard in two years. Reluctant to admit that he heard it in German headquarters, he makes up the lie about the radio, swearing his longtime friend to silence. Before he knows it, people are smiling at Jakob in the street and tipping their hats to him. And when he goes off to do forced labor each day in the freight yards, the others in the work gang press him for more. So he fabricates more and more optimistic news as the false reports engender real hope. The salutary effect of good news on the ghetto convinces Jakob he shouldn't deny he has access to a radio. Before long, he's become a local hero, and a target for Nazi punishment.