Movies Like Jakob the Liar (1999)

Jakob the Liar is a 1999 comedy, drama, history film from Peter Kassovitz with a MovieMagicScore of 6.7/10. Here are 20 similar films, ranked by real viewer ratings — starting with The Painted Bird and The Photographer of Mauthausen.

Comedy Drama History

The Painted Bird

2019

After losing his parents, a young Jewish boy wanders Eastern Europe, seeking refuge during World War II.

7.1

MagicScore

The Photographer of Mauthausen

2018

Spanish photographer Francesc Boix, imprisoned in the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp, works in the SS Photographic Service. Between 1943 and 1945, he hides, with the help of other prisoners, thousands of negatives, with the purpose of showing the freed world the atrocities committed by the Nazis, exhaustively documented. He will be a key witness during the Nuremberg Trials.

7.0

MagicScore

A Generation

1955

Stach is a wayward teen living in squalor on the outskirts of Nazi-occupied Warsaw. Guided by an avuncular Communist organizer, he is introduced to the underground resistance—and to the beautiful Dorota. Soon he is engaged in dangerous efforts to fight oppression and indignity, maturing as he assumes responsibility for others’ lives. A coming-of-age story of survival and shattering loss, A Generation delivers a brutal portrait of the human cost of war.

6.9

MagicScore

Romeo, Juliet and Darkness

1960

Pavel, a young student living in Prague in 1942, hides a Jewish girl in his apartment building's attic. Amidst the brutality of the occupying German army, love blossoms between the two. He is her only link to the outside world. Then the two are discovered by Pavel's mother, who forces the residents of the apartment building to decide whether Hana can remain.

6.0

MagicScore

To Be or Not to Be

1942

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.

7.8

MagicScore

Warsaw 44

2014

City of Warsaw, Poland, August 1st, 1944. Citizens have experienced inhuman acts of terror and violence during five long years of Nazi occupation. As the Soviet Army relentlessly approaches, the youngest and bravest among them rise up as one and face tyranny fighting street by street, but the price to pay will be high and hard the way to freedom…

6.8

MagicScore

The Night of the Generals

1967

A German intelligence officer investigates a prostitute's killing in Warsaw during World War II. He lands on three major Nazi generals as suspects, two of whom are also involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.

6.8

MagicScore

The Pianist

2002

The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.

8.4

MagicScore

Schindler's List

1993

The true story of how businessman Oskar Schindler saved over a thousand Jewish lives from the Nazis while they worked as slaves in his factory during World War II.

8.6

MagicScore

#10

Hangmen Also Die!

1943

During the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, surgeon Dr. Franticek Svoboda, a Czech patriot, assassinates the brutal "Hangman of Europe", Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich, and is wounded in the process. In his attempt to escape, he is helped by history professor Stephen Novotny and his daughter Mascha.

6.9

MagicScore

#11

Bon Voyage

1944

After escaping a Nazi POW camp, a young Scottish RAF gunner recounts his perilous journey through occupied France with the help of the Resistance. During his debriefing in London, French intelligence officers press him for details—especially about one companion whose true loyalties may not be what they seemed.

5.6

MagicScore

#12

Sunshine

1999

The fate of a Hungarian Jewish family throughout the 20th century.

6.5

MagicScore

#13

The Song of Names

2019

A man searches for his childhood best friend, a Polish violin prodigy orphaned in the Holocaust, who vanished decades before on the night of his first public performance.

6.7

MagicScore

#14

The Diary of Anne Frank

1959

The true, harrowing story of a young Jewish girl who, with her family and their friends, is forced into hiding in an attic in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam.

7.2

MagicScore

#15

Charlotte

2022

The true story of Charlotte Salomon, a young German-Jewish painter who comes of age in Berlin on the eve of the Second World War. Fiercely imaginative and deeply gifted, she dreams of becoming an artist. Her first love applauds her talent, which emboldens her resolve. When anti-Semitic policies inspire violent mobs, she escapes to the safety of the South of France. There she begins to paint again, and finds new love. But her work is interrupted, this time by a family tragedy that reveals an even darker secret. Believing that only an extraordinary act will save her, she embarks on the monumental adventure of painting her life story.

6.3

MagicScore

#16

The Birdcatcher

2019

Norway, 1942, during World War II. After being separated from her family, Esther, a young Jewish girl from Trondheim, arrives at an isolated farm where she must assume a new identity in order to survive the Nazi persecution.

5.5

MagicScore

#17

The Camp on Blood Island

1958

Set in a Japanese prisoner of war camp during World War II, the film focuses on the brutality and horror that the allied prisoners were exposed to as the Japanese metered out subjugation and punishment to a disgraced and defeated enemy. This harrowing drama concentrates on the deviations of legal and moral definitions when two opposing cultures clash. Although fictional, this was one of the earliest films to deal realistically with life and death in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp during the Second War.

6.6

MagicScore

#18

The Odessa File

1974

Following the suicide of an elderly Jewish man, investigative journalist Peter Miller sets out to hunt down an SS Captain and former concentration camp commander. In doing so he discovers that, despite allegations of war crimes, the former commander has become a man of importance in industry in post-war Germany, protected from prosecution by a powerful organisation of former SS members called Odessa.

6.6

MagicScore

#19

Only Human

2004

Leni takes Rafi to meet her family in Madrid. Leni's family is Jewish - mother, father, older sister and daughter, brother, and grandfather. Rafi is Palestinian, in Spain since age 12. Before her father returns from work, Leni reveals Rafi's origins. He accidentally drops a block of frozen soup out the flat window, probably killing a passerby. Leni initiates a cover-up and Rafi figures out the body is probably Leni's father. The body disappears and without telling the rest of the family what they know, Leni and Rafi organize a search for dad. Mom is sure he's having an affair. Leni's belly-dancing sister kisses Rafi. Her brother grabs a rifle to shoot the Arab. Can anything be put right?

6.2

MagicScore

#20

Prime

2005

A career driven professional from Manhattan is wooed by a young painter, who also happens to be the son of her psychoanalyst.

6.0

MagicScore

Frequently asked

What are the best movies like Jakob the Liar?

The top films similar to Jakob the Liar by MovieMagicScore are The Painted Bird (7.1), The Photographer of Mauthausen (7.0), A Generation (6.9). Each shares comedy/drama/history themes and is ranked by real viewer ratings, not critics or studios.

Is Jakob the Liar worth watching?

Jakob the Liar holds a MovieMagicScore of 6.7/10 from 387 viewer ratings.

What kind of movie is Jakob the Liar?

Jakob the Liar (1999) is a comedy, drama, history film directed by Peter Kassovitz, starring Robin Williams, Liev Schreiber, Hannah Taylor-Gordon.

Where can I find more recommendations like Jakob the Liar?

Browse the full ranked list above, or explore more comedy recommendations on MovieMagicScore, where every list is ordered by genuine viewer ratings.

Keep exploring

Movies like The Painted Bird Movies like The Photographer of Mauthausen Movies like A Generation Movies like Romeo, Juliet and Darkness Movies like To Be or Not to Be Movies like Warsaw 44

About movies like Jakob the Liar

This ranked list pairs Jakob the Liar (1999), a comedy and drama and history film from Peter Kassovitz, with similar titles by genre, theme and cast overlap (fans of Robin Williams take note). Unlike critic-driven sites, every position here is ordered by MovieMagicScore — a rating built only from real viewers, with no studio marketing or paid placement. Scores update as more people rate, so the list stays current.

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