Cinema: Visions in the Rubble

When people are trapped in a hopeless situation, is it kind to give them false hopes to live on, or is it cruel? This is the dilemma stumbled into by Jacob, a middle-aged Jew in a World War II Polish ghetto. On an impulse, Jacob claims to own a forbidden radio on which he has heard that the Russian army will soon be near enough to liberate the ghetto. His neighbors, desperate for more news, rally around to cajole, flatter and protect him, forcing him to compound his first fabrication endlessly.

Jacob the Liar is a film of confinement: at the end...

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