Dr. Malcolm Sayer is based loosely on Dr. Oliver Sacks, the author of the book Awakenings, a non-fiction account of a group of post-encephalitic Parkinson patients, who were given the drug L-Dopa, of their awakenings and subsequent problems. In an appendix to the 1990 edition, Dr. Sacks writes, [T]here were many revelations for me in the film - it was not merely, for example, that I was made to think of neurology and acting in a new way; I saw events anew from the perspective of their portrayal in the film.