Although the Oscars are behind us for another year, some of the winning films are only now coming to our movie screens in Hong Kong. THE BRUTALIST, which won three awards on Sunday night including Best Actor for Adrien Brody, tells the story of an immigrant to post-war America who draws the line when it comes to compromising on his craft.

It’s 1947 and Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Brody, THE FRENCH DISPATCH) arrives in Philadelphia to begin a new life in America. While staying with his cousin, Attila (Alessandro Nivola, KRAVEN THE HUNTER) and his wife, he learns that own wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING), and orphaned niece, Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy), survived as well and are stuck in Europe trying to get immigrant visas to the US. When Attila, who runs a furniture store, is approached by Harry Lee Van Buren (Joe Alwyn, BILLY LYNN’S LONG HALFTIME WALK), to renovate the library at his father’s, Harrison Lee Van Buren’s (Guy Pearce, ALIEN: COVENANT), mansion, László goes to work designing it in the style he knows best from his storied career in Hungary: Brutalist. Though the library is transformed into a masterpiece of architecture, Harrison is furious about the change. His opinion shifts, however, when both he and the library are featured in an influential magazine. Harrison looks into László’s past and discovers that the man was once a celebrated architect in Europe until Hitler and the Nazis took his livelihood away from him. Harrison decides to commission László to design and build a huge multi-functional space in tribute to Harrison’s late mother. The project is fraught with challenges as László and Harrison clash over their visions and who is in charge.

I’ll begin with the elephant in the room. THE BRUTALIST is long – 215 minutes, which includes a well-timed 15-minute intermission. Fortunately, the first part of the film, which is 100 minutes in length, speeds by as we get to know László, Harrison and the other characters. Brody immerses himself into his character and it’s not long before one forgets that we’re watching an acting performance. The actor, who won his first Oscar (THE PIANIST) also for playing a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, draws upon his personal experience as the son and grandson of Hungarian and Polish Jewish immigrants. László, though, is a deeply flawed character. He’s a drug addict and he’s a bit of hot head who won’t hear of cutting corners to save money. At the same though, and unlike his cousin Attila, he doesn’t forget his Jewish roots and he stands tall when he’s dealing with anti-Semites and people who think less of him because he’s an immigrant.

Director and co-writer Brady Corbet (VOX LUX) clearly felt a lot of affinity for his character as he took aim at the studios when he won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture – Drama back in January. In his acceptance speech, he said, “Final cut tie break goes to the director,” referring to all the heat he received for wanting to make a “three-hour film about a mid-century designer using 70 mm film”. (THE BRUTALIST is shot in VistaVision, which hasn’t been used in 60 years.) But Corbet, who has been in Hollywood since he was 7 years old but has only made two other feature films, stuck to his guns much like László Tóth and soldiered on for seven years to make the story come to life.

Interestingly, the film ends with a rather jarring musical choice – “One for You, One for Me” by Italian disco duo La Bionda. On the surface, the choice is rather obvious. The story ends in Italy in the mid ’70s, which was around the time that the song became a hit. The title, too, is symbolic of László’s struggle to give in to compromise. There is much more to this choice of song, however, and I would encourage you to look it up to find out more. It’s truly an inspired choice.

THE BRUTALIST opens in Hong Kong on Thursday (March 6th). Don’t be put off by its length. This story is as epic as filmmaking gets!

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