Based on a True Story

Our most recent film project, Under Jakob's Ladder, is one of those "based on a true story" films.

A few people have asked us this: So, what's real? And, what's (how shall we say this?)... embellishment?

Well, as with other true stories, life doesn't usually happen in neat 1-and-half hour packages. Which means movies "based on a true story" often rely on streamlining events and combining several characters to be played by one actor.

So, who's real in our film?

• JAKOB was very much a real person. Forced out of his teaching position in the Ukrainian village because of the new Soviet system being established by Stalin in the 1930s, he did indeed end up in prison after praying at a funeral.
• His granddaughter, MARTA, is real (and, by the way, still alive today). Her mother, RACHEL, and grandmother LOUISA, were also very much real people.
• OIGEN, the man who denounced Jakob to the secret police, has had his name changed for the film. In addition to this, many of his character traits and events in his life have been fictionalized.
• Oigen's wife, EMMA, is a composite of a few different women from Jakob's village; one of whom asked Jakob to pray at the funeral. Her name also has been changed.
• YASHA (his fictional name), one of Jakob's fellow prisoners, is another composite of different people. His name also has been changed.
• KARL, another prisoner, is based on a real person who was indeed one of Jakob's former students. However, his name also has been changed simply because we are not certain what his real name was. But it was he who survived to tell Rachel about Jakob's life in prison.
• DAVID is a composite of two Mennonite underground church leaders who lived under the Soviet regime; both of whom are personally known to us. (In fact, one of us acted as an interpreter when one of the men did a speaking tour about his experiences in the Soviet Union).
• The other prisoners--like BRUNO, YOSIF, HANS, and PEPCHIK--are representative of the ethnic German community that lived in the Soviet Ukraine. Most of the characteristics and mannerisms stem from the stories passed on down through oral history; some stories came from Marta; some from books written by or about survivors of the time period. For example, Yosif's story about being arrested after he (as village mayor) allowed the commune's potato crop to freeze is a true story (although Yosif is a character created by us).

So then, who's not real?

Well, we must admit that we created, completely from scratch, the warden of the prison: NIKOLAI. Of course, there must have been some guy who held his position. (Who knows? Maybe his name really was Nikolai. Probably not, though!)