The film, directed by Robert Zemeckis, is based on a true story. It ells the story of Mark Hogancamp, a cross dresser who was violently beaten by five white supremacist nazis in 2000. After waking up from a coma with no memories, Hogancamp began to cope with his trauma by building models of a fictional Belgian city during World War II: Marwencol, and taking photographs of it as a coping art project.