H is for Hawk (2025)

Claire Foy excels in an adaptation of Helen Macdonald’s prize-winning memoir, as they find solace from grief by adopting and training a goshawk.

Experiencing a catastrophic loss when their father dies, Helen withdraws from their academic career, family and friends, turning to nature – a passion shared with their father. Declaring “I’m not dealing with things very well at the moment. I need something different. I want a goshawk!”, we then follow Helen building their relationship with the wildest and toughest of birds of prey.

The screenplay, co-written by Emma Donoghue and BAFTA-winning director Philippa Lowthorpe, has a grittiness and lack of sentimentality but is also profoundly moving and ultimately uplifting.

Aided by a superb music score and cinematography, the interior monologues of the memoir are expertly transitioned into a visually poetic meditation on Helen’s journey from grief through solace to a kind of recovery. Paul Marshall 

UK/USA, 2025. Director Philippa Lowthorpe. Screenplay by Emma Donoghue and Philippa Lowthorpe from the 2014 memoir by Helen Macdonald. With Claire Foy, Brendan Gleeson, Denise Gough. 115 mins. 12A

Q&A with director Philippa Lowthorpe

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