Jakob the Liar

Jakob the Liar is a 1999 American drama film directed by Peter Kassovitz and starring Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Liev Schreiber, Hannah TaylorGordon, and Bob Balaban. The movie is set in 1944 in a ghetto in Germanoccupied Poland during the Holocaust and is based on the book by Jurek Becker about World War II Jewish ghetto life. It is a remake of the East German DEFA film Jakob der Lgner from 1975.

The Gestapo learn of the mythical radio, however, and begin a search for the resistance hero who dares operate it. Jakob surrenders himself to the Germans as they demand the person with the radio give himself up or risk hostages being killed. During interrogation, Jakob tells the police commander that he had only listened to the radio inside his office. He is ordered to announce publicly that this was all a lie, so the ghettos liquidation would then proceed in an orderly fashion. When presented to the public, Jakob refuses to tell the truth, but is shot before he can make his own speech.In the films ending, Jakob says, postmortem, that all the ghettos residents were then deported and were never seen again. As in the novel, there is an alternate fairy talestyle ending where the Soviet forces arrive following Jakobs death, just in time to save the Jews. ........

Source: Wikipedia