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Movies like Jakob the Liar (1999)

The best movies like Jakob the Liar (1999) are The Boy in the Woods (2023), The Zone of Interest (2023) and Denial (2016). If Jakob the Liar hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.

Quick picks

  1. The Boy in the Woods (2023)

    The remarkable true-life survival story of a Jewish boy hiding and being hunted in the forests of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, based on Maxwell Smart's memoir.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  2. The Zone of Interest (2023)

    The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden next to the camp.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  3. Denial (2016)

    Acclaimed writer and historian Deborah E. Lipstadt must battle for historical truth to prove the Holocaust actually occurred when David Irving, a renowned denier, sues her for libel.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  4. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008)

    When his family moves from their home in Berlin to a strange new house in Poland, young Bruno befriends Shmuel, a boy who lives on the other side of the fence where everyone seems to be wearing striped pajamas. Unaware of Shmuel's fate as a Jewish prisoner or the role his own Nazi father plays in his imprisonment, Bruno embarks on a dangerous journey inside the camp's walls.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  5. Jojo Rabbit (2019)

    Jojo, a lonely German boy during World War II has his world shaken when he learns that his single mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home. Influenced by a buffoonish imaginary version of Adolf Hitler, he begins to question his beliefs and confront the conflict between propaganda and his own humanity.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  6. The Way Back (2010)

    A small band of multicultural convicts stages a daring escape from a WWII-era Siberian gulag, and embarks on a treacherous journey across five countries in a desperate race for freedom and survival.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  7. Ben-Hur (1959)

    In ancient Judea, a Jewish aristocrat opposing Roman occupation of his homeland reunites with his childhood friend, now a Roman commander — setting in motion a saga of betrayal, adventure, tragedy, revenge, and faith.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  8. September 5 (2024)

    During the 1972 Munich Olympics, an American sports broadcasting crew finds itself thrust into covering the hostage crisis involving Israeli athletes.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  9. Origin (2023)

    While investigating the global phenomenon of caste and its dark influence on society, a journalist faces unfathomable personal loss and uncovers the beauty of human resilience.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  10. God on Trial (2008)

    In the Jewish tradition of arguing with God, Jewish prisoners in Auschwitz decide to put God on Trial.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  11. A Call to Spy (2020)

    The story of Vera Atkins, a crafty spy recruiter, and two of the first women she selects for Churchill's "secret army": Virginia Hall, a daring American undaunted by a disability and Noor Inayat Khan, a pacifist. These civilian women form an unlikely sisterhood while entangled in dangerous missions to turn the tide of the war.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both history & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  12. The Right Stuff (1983)

    At the dawn of the Space Race, seven test pilots set out to become the first American astronauts to enter space. However, the road to making history brings momentous challenges.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  13. A Real Pain (2024)

    Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair's old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  14. The Eichmann Show (2015)

    The behind-the-scenes true life story of a groundbreaking producer, Milton Fruchtman, and blacklisted TV director Leo Hurwitz who, overcoming enormous obstacles, set out to capture the testimony of one of the war's most notorious Nazis, Adolf Eichmann, who is accused of executing the 'final solution' and organising the murder of 6 million Jews. This is the extraordinary story of how the trial came to be televised and the team that made it happen.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  15. Shattered Glass (2003)

    Stephen Glass is a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By the mid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events - chronicled in Buzz Bissinger's September 1998 Vanity Fair article - suddenly stopped his career in its tracks.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  16. Raid on Entebbe (1976)

    Based on a true operation by Israeli commandos. An Air France flight is hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The airplane landed in Uganda. The terrorists released some passengers, keeping 94 Jews and 12 air crew hostage. The Israeli government would not negotiate. A rescue plan was devised, and less than 100 commandos were flown across Africa to rescue the passengers in surprisingly successful operation.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  17. The Railway Man (2013)

    A victim from World War II's "Death Railway" sets out to find those responsible for his torture. A true story.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  18. The Best of Enemies (2019)

    Centers on the unlikely relationship between Ann Atwater, an outspoken civil rights activist, and C.P. Ellis, a local Ku Klux Klan leader who reluctantly co-chaired a community summit, battling over the desegregation of schools in Durham, North Carolina during the racially-charged summer of 1971. The incredible events that unfolded would change Durham and the lives of Atwater and Ellis forever.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  19. The Six Triple Eight (2024)

    During World War II, the US Army's only all-Black, all-women battalion takes on an impossible mission: sorting through a three-year backlog of 17 million pieces of mail that hadn't been delivered to American soldiers and finish within six months.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & history

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  20. You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023)

    Stacy and Lydia are BFFs who've always dreamed about having epic bat mitzvahs. But things start to go comically awry when a popular boy and middle school drama threatens their friendship and their rite of passage.

    Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  21. 24 Hour Party People (2002)

    Manchester, 1976. Tony Wilson is an ambitious but frustrated local TV news reporter looking for a way to make his mark. After witnessing a life-changing concert by a band known as the Sex Pistols, he persuades his station to televise one of their performances, and soon Manchester's punk groups are clamoring for him to manage them. Riding the wave of a musical revolution, Wilson and his friends create the legendary Factory Records label and The Hacienda club.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  22. Adaptation. (2002)

    Charlie Kaufman is a confused L.A. screenwriter overwhelmed by feelings of inadequacy, sexual frustration, self-loathing, and by the screenwriting ambitions of his freeloading twin brother Donald. While struggling to adapt "The Orchid Thief," by Susan Orlean, Kaufman's life spins from pathetic to bizarre. The lives of Kaufman and Orlean's book become strangely intertwined as each one's search for passion collides with the other's.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

    Worth the HypeMovies like this
  23. The Match (2021)

    Inspired by true events from the spring of 1944 when the Nazis organized a football match between a team of camp inmates and an elite Nazi team on Adolf Hitler's birthday. A match the prisoners are determined to win, no matter what happens.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  24. Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

    In 1561, Mary Stuart, widow of the King of France, returns to Scotland, reclaims her rightful throne and menaces the future of Queen Elizabeth I as ruler of England, because she has a legitimate claim to the English throne. Betrayals, rebellions, conspiracies and their own life choices imperil both Queens. They experience the bitter cost of power, until their tragic fate is finally fulfilled.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  25. Barry Lyndon (1975)

    An Irish rogue uses his cunning and wit to work his way up the social classes of 18th century England, transforming himself from the humble Redmond Barry into the noble Barry Lyndon.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history

    Absolute CinemaMovies like this
  26. Un crime de guerre (1994)

    A film that relates the trial in Bordeaux in January 1953 of some of the participants in the Oradour-sur-Glane massacre of June 10, 1944.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & history

  27. Emma (1996)

    Emma Woodhouse is a congenial young lady who delights in meddling in other people’s affairs. She is perpetually trying to unite men and women who are utterly wrong for each other. Despite her interest in romance, Emma is clueless about her own feelings, and her relationship with gentle Mr. Knightley.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  28. Odette Toulemonde (2007)

    Objectively, Odette Toulemonde has nothing to be happy about, but is. Balthazar Balsan has everything to be happy about, but isn’t. Odette, awkwardly forty, with a delightful hairdresser son and a daughter bogged down in adolescence, spends her days behind the cosmetic’s counter in a department store and her nights sewing feathers on costumes for Parisian variety shows. She dreams of thanking Balthazar Balsan, her favorite author, to whom – she believes – she owes her optimism. The rich and charming Parisian writer then turns up in her life in an unexpected way.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama

  29. The Assault (1986)

    At the end of WWII the Dutch resistance kills a German officer in front of the house of a Dutch family. Years after the war the young boy who witnessed the killing runs into the members of the resistance who committed the killing.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

    Popcorn FlickMovies like this
  30. In the Name of the Law (1932)

    The story is about a drug ring and the finally successful efforts of the Paris police to break it up. A young detective goes into a den in Paris' Chinatown, following a clue, and that is the last seen of him until his body is found floating in the Seine several days later. The only clue is a woman's glove. The dead man's friends on the force vow to avenge him, and receive information leading them to suspect one Sandra, a beautiful foreigner, played by the stunning Marcelle Chantal.

    Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama

Like Jakob the Liar and something else?

Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.

Frequently asked questions

What are the best movies like Jakob the Liar?

The closest matches to Jakob the Liar are The Boy in the Woods (2023), The Zone of Interest (2023) and Denial (2016). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.

What should I watch after Jakob the Liar?

Start with The Boy in the Woods (2023), the closest match to Jakob the Liar.

What is the highest-rated movie like Jakob the Liar?

Jojo Rabbit (2019), rated 8.0/10 by 10,854 TMDB users.

What is the newest movie like Jakob the Liar?

The Six Triple Eight (2024) is the most recent release on this list.

Are there English movies like Jakob the Liar?

Yes: The Boy in the Woods (2023), The Zone of Interest (2023) and Denial (2016).

How are movies similar to Jakob the Liar chosen?

First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Jakob the Liar, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.

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