AFI Fest, Arty Froushan, BFI London Film Festival, Brendan Gleeson, Claire Foy, Denise Gough, drama, England, film festivals, H Is for Hawk, Josh Dylan, Lindsay Duncan, movies, Philippa Lowthorpe, Sam Spruell, Telluride Film Festival
February 24, 2026
by Carla Hay
Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe
Culture Representation: Taking place in England, the dramatic film “H Is for Hawk” (based on the memoir of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Middle Eastern people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: An academic researcher/scholar is grieving over the sudden death of her father, when she decides to get a goshawk that is somewhat difficult to train.
Culture Audience: “H Is for Hawk” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and well-acted dramas about grieving people and their pets.
“H Is for Hawk” features commendable performances, but this drama about a grieving woman and her pet goshawk might be too slow-paced for some viewers. It’s still a good story about how animals and people can help each other through tough times. The movie “H Is for Hawk” is based on a true story, and the movie doesn’t have a false note that looks overly contrived for the sake of being in a movie.
Directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, “H Is for Hawk” was written by Emma Donoghue and Lowthorpe. The movie’s screenplay is adapted from Helen Macdonald’s 2014 memoir “H Is for Hawk.” “H Is for Hawk” takes place in England and was filmed in various parts of the United Kingdom, including Cambridge, Clevedon, and Wales. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival and subsequently screened at other film festivals in 2025, including the BFI London Film Festival and AFI Fest.
The protagonist in “H Is for Hawk” is Helen Macdonald (played by Claire Foy), who is a research scholar and a former lecturer at the University of Cambridge’s Department of History and Philosophy of Science. The movie’s very first scene shows that Helen has a very close relationship with her father Alisdair Macdonald (played by Brendan Gleeson), an acclaimed photojournalist. Helen and Alisdair are both avid birdwatchers. The first scene in the movie shows Helen excitedly calling Alisdair to tell him that she saw a goshawk.
Helen’s mother/Alisdair’s wife (played by Lindsay Duncan), whose name is not mentioned in the movie, is retired and thinks Alisdair should also retire because he has a demanding job. Helen’s mother is loving and supportive of Helen, but Helen is definitely a “daddy’s girl.” Helen has a brother named James (played by Josh Dylan), who is briefly seen in the movie.
Helen is a bachelorette with no kids, just like her best friend Christine (played by Denise Gough), who has a lively personality. Helen likes to spend a lot of her free time outdoors with Alisdair. There are multiple scenes in the movie where Helen and Alisdair are out in fields doing bird watching or enjoying nature. Alisdair often takes photos during these get-togethers.
Helen’s tranquil life is shattered when Alisdair suddenly dies after collapsing on a street. His cause of death is not mentioned in the movie, but in real life Alisdair Macdonald died of a suspected heart attack. Most of the movie is about Helen coping with her grief. “H Is for Hawk” has several flashbacks that are memories of Helen’s happy memories of her father/daughter time with Alisdair.
Alisdair’s death happens during a crossroads in Helen’s life: She has recently resigned from the University of Cambridge and has been deciding whether or not she should apply for a fellowship at the Max Planck Institutes in Berlin. Helen has been living on the University of Cambridge campus, so she needs to find another place to live after she finishes out her last semester and her University of Cambridge employment ends.
At first, Helen tries to have an outward appearance that she has a lot of strength in coping with her grief. On the day that her father dies, she insists on keeping a dinner reservation that she had with Christine. She also reads a lot of self-help books on grief.
But as time goes on, it’s obvious that Helen is not coping with her grief very well. The first indication is when she spends the night with an art dealer/Ph.D. student named Amar (played by Arty Froushan), whom she has recently met, and she asks him to move to Berlin with her the morning after their first sexual encounter at her place. Amar quickly leaves, and Helen never hears from him again.
Helen has a married platonic friend named Stuart (played by Sam Spruell), who is an experienced falconer. Helen has always admired goshawks, so she decides to get a goshawk of her own. She names the goshawk Mabel, who has a fiercely independent personality. Stuart helps Helen with much of Mabel’s training, but Helen also learns a lot by herself.
As expected in stories like this one, Helen grows very emotionally attached to Mabel, who is quite the challenge when it comes to training. Helen treats Mabel as a constant companion, so there are multiple scenes in the movie where Helen often defies “no pets” policies at certain places, just so she can take Mabel somewhere. And you can almost do a countdown to a scene where members of the community are going to have a complaint about Mabel, so Helen has some type of confrontation with people who want some sort of punishment.
“H Is for Hawk” hits a lot of familiar and somewhat formulaic beats in the story. People who know how much work and care go into training pet animals are most likely to appreciate “H Is for Hawk,” which has lovely cinematography by Charlotte Bruus Christensen. Foy carries the movie with emotional authenticity in her role as Helen, who discovers that having a pet animal is not a cure for depression. “H Is for Hawk” has an ending that is open to interpretation, but it shows enough glimmers of hope, so the movie does not end in a depressing way.
Roadside Attractions released “H Is for Hawk” in select U.S. cinemas and in the United Kingdom on January 23, 2026. The movie was released on digital and VOD on February 24, 2026.