In First Trailer for H Is for Hawk, Claire Foy Faces Grief and Fury
We’ve seen countless human-animal bonding films in the 120-plus years of cinema history, but the upcoming “H is For Hawk” is one such movie that promises to break new taxonomic ground. It’s founded on a bland premise for a grief-based drama – that of a protagonist struggling to recover after the death of her parent – but its would-be key to her recovery is a form of animal taming that is, for some reason, rarely depicted in popular culture.
Of Hawks and One Grieving Human
Of course, the animals with which “H is For Hawk”’s protagonist, real-life English writer and naturalist Helen Macdonald (Claire Foy, whose previous credits include “Wolf Hall” and “First Man”), will bond are hawks – specifically, those ineffable aerial predators known as Eurasian goshawks.
“H is For Hawk” is a biographical drama – an adaptation of Macdonald’s 2014 memoir of the same name, in which they (Macdonald uses she/they pronouns, though this probably won’t be depicted in the film because they hadn’t yet come out as non-binary at the time of its events) recount how one such bird helped them cope with their grief following the death of their father in 2007.
The trailer for “H is For Hawk” opens with Helen’s father, Alisdair (the great Brendan Gleeson of “28 Days Later,” “Dark Blue,” the “Harry Potter” films, and countless others), still alive. Helen calls him from out in the country after she notices a pair of goshawks in flight together. “Watch carefully,” he advises her, “so you remember what you’ve seen.” In the very next clip, she’s at his funeral, eulogizing him as “a quiet man with a camera,” and “the only person who understood me.”
Helen, who at this time is a falcon research scholar and professor at Cambridge University, isn’t coping with her loss very well, and she decides that the best potential remedy is for her to get more hands-on experience with the birds she’s been learning about. She procures a goshawk, which she names “Mabel,” and begins to learn the ancient skill of taming this bird of prey.
A Fascinating, Never-Before-Seen Form of Animal Therapy
Falconry is a type of animal training that goes back well into the BC’s; it was practiced by ancient societies throughout Europe and Asia. Yet it’s hard to recall any instance of its being prominently or memorably depicted onscreen. Inherently, it’s visually striking enough to make a great addition to a medieval fantasy film or a grounded drama like “H is For Hawk,” but somehow (notwithstanding brief appearances in such media as “The Mummy Returns” and “Avatar: The Last Airbender”) it’s rarely been shown in film or television.
Since Falconry is an uncommon pastime in movies, the premise of falconry as a salve for the grief of bereavement is all but wholly original to “H is for Hawk.” (Macdonald’s endeavor did consciously follow the example of mid-twentieth-century English author T.H. White, whose experience with his falcon has yet to be put to film.) Along with its very accomplished cast (which also includes Denise Gough and Lindsay Duncan), the tale of a psychologically pained protagonist deriving inner peace from training such a uniquely beautiful predator out in the English woods makes this a biographical drama worth your attention.
A Realistic Hunter, Not an Idealized Pet
Here’s a quick note for the squeamish: it’s important to remember that the goshawk is indeed a predator, and falconry is a practice that entails using such a bird to hunt and kill small game.
It’s unclear just how much “H is For Hawk” will delve into this particular aspect of its human-hawk relationship, but certainly, hunting will make an appearance. At one point in the trailer, the goshawk is called “the wildest and maddest of all raptors” right before a close-up shot in which the remarkable intensity of its accipitrid gaze speaks for itself. There are also several quick clips of Helen running after her bird as it flies quickly over a field, and one shot in which it appears to be closing in on something.
However, potentially unpalatable it may be for some viewers, predation is essential to the very nature of the animal with which Helen will be forming her profound bond. Those averse to witnessing the killing of (most likely) rodents and rabbits may want to think carefully before going in to see “H is For Hawk” – at least so long as the movie respects its subject matter.
