Is The Brutalist based on real people? Explained

The Brutalist is a film by Brady Corbet that explores the life and struggles of László Toth, a Hungarian architect whose journey is inspired by the broader realities faced by many immigrant architects and artists during the mid-20th century. Although the story is not based on a specific individual, it is based on the experiences and challenges of real people who lived during that era.

The movie's protagonist, played by Adrien Brody, is a fictional Hungarian-Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor, László Tóth, whose life experience mirrors the trials and successes of people in the real world.

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Historical inspirations behind The Brutalist

Still from the movie (Image via YouTube/A24)

The story of The Brutalist draws heavily from the stories of immigrant architects such as Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and others who escaped Europe with the rise of totalitarian regimes in the 20th century. Faced with these challenges, they brought modernist principles to the United States and challenged their artistic visions against the practical realities and the considerations of commerce in their new world.

According to The New York Times, Corbet and Fastvold deliberately steered away from relating László's tale to any concrete historical figure. Fastvold said,

“And if you’re locked into a real person, then it’s harder to do so because you’re married to what happened to them vs. just looking at this period in time and the relationship between postwar psychology and postwar architecture.”

They, instead consulted with architectural historians such as the late Jean-Louis Cohen, who helped ensure the story correctly portrayed the post-war period and the rise of Brutalist architecture.

While László Toth is an imaginary figure, the movie themes of perseverance over adversity, artistic compromise, and the immigrant search for the "American Dream" are highly pertinent to actual historical contexts. In fact, many of the world's most celebrated architects and artists grappled with the dilemma of balancing innovation against external demands.

Still from the movie (Image via YouTube/A24)

Although The Brutalist is not a direct biography, it draws upon the collective experiences of real-life individuals in architecture and art during a transformative era in history. Its story blends fiction with reality to explore universal themes of ambition, identity, and survival, making it a compelling reflection of the struggles faced by immigrant creatives.

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What is The Brutalist about?

The film is essentially a drama interwoven within themes of trauma, creativity, and the experience of an immigrant, echoing what many European architects experienced during mid-20th-century American influence.

Although the story of Tóth was fictional, many architects who inspired the Brutalist movement, involving raw concrete structures and a minimalist approach, were related to real stories. The cinematic reflection of broader experiences of the postwar America, this film reveals the struggles and achievements of Tóth as an immigrant architect.

The film tracks the life story of László Toth and his wife, Erzsébet, who leave their war-ravaged home in Europe and immigrate to America. The architectural vision that brings László Toth into the limelight features brutalist design, which epitomizes the raw, minimalist, and highly utilitarian style. But László's success will come at the cost of some personal sacrifices and ethical dilemmas as he is forced to weigh the demands of clients against the emotional burden of his past.

The movie premiered in theaters on December 20, 2024, for a limited time. It has spread wide critical acclaim and is already sparking awards buzz. It will be released nationwide on January 24, 2025. Although the movie has not arrived on streaming yet, its production deal with A24 means that it could easily find a home on platforms such as Showtime or Apple TV+ soon.

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Catch The Brutalist on Amazon Prime when it releases to see how this inspired tale unfolds on screen.