His first theatrical film after almost ten years was '' Jacob the Liar '' in 1975 , adapted from a novel by Jurek Becker and a co-production of the DEFA studios and East German television . The film is set in World War II in German-occupied Poland . It tells the story of the Jewish protagonist Jakob Heym in a Jewish ghetto who pretends to own a radio and being able to receive news from the outside world . The film , which was remade into the Hollywood film Jakob the Liar in 1999 , was Frank Beyer 's biggest critical and popular success . At the 25th Berlin International Film Festival in West Berlin in 1975 the film won a Silver Bear and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards in 1977 . It was East Germany 's first and only nomination for an Academy Award
49th Academy Awards
49th Academy Awards
Frank Beyer